


Beyond Seven

by Sunsinger



Category: Blake's 7
Genre: Finally Edited, M/M, NaNoWriMo, NanoWrimo 2011
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-11-07
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2017-10-25 19:51:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 53,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/274105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunsinger/pseuds/Sunsinger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>GOT A BETA! GIVE THANKS TO NANNASALLY!!!! So new and improved chapters are coming your way. Up to Chapter 3 beta'd and posted 3/5/17. Because of the great rewrites, I am finding slight divergences bear out. I would guess around Chapter 8, there will be quite noticeable changes but the main plot will be kept the same. No fear. It's just as things are corrected, options open up.</p><p>________________________________________________________________________</p><p>This is my NaNoWriMo novel for 2011. There's no editing during nanowrimo, just writing. I'm not even a plotter nano'er. I'm a seat of pantser. I just sat down and wrote. Now I did have an idea of a plot but the actual piece of plot, ummm no! See my first author note for more details. BTW, this is going to be AU. Majorly AU. Especially since I have not seen many episodes of the past ten years. I recently got all four seasons and I am watching but not so much during November. I would appreciate constructive criticism but if Slash isn't your cup of tea, then please move on and any flames given will be handed to my friends to be mocked and ridiculed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Finalized 12/08/16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edited thanks to NannaSally, reposted on 12/8/16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, like I said this is my NaNoWriMo novel for 2011, good. Now As I said before this will be AU. I haven't seen all of B7 for the past ten years but I have read fic. So no, everything won't be perfect but again... AU! 
> 
> I now have a beta, everyone please give thanks and well wishes to [NannaSally](http://archiveofourown.org/users/NannaSally/pseuds/NannaSally) who is helping me improve this work day by day.

Avon smiled grimly and raised his gun, pointing it at the group of black suited soldiers encircling him.

Suddenly shots rang out - slowly the Federation forces slumped to the ground. Avon watched from the window as men and women came from the trees. The rebels of Gauda Prime whooped as they came forward to carry off the dead soldiers.

“Before we bury them, we’ll slit their throats. What do you wish us to do with your dead?’

“Nothing Lethro. I have no dead. If you can get them to a safe place, all of them, then I have a plan that can get all of you off this world.”

Lethro looked at the fallen bodies of Tarrant, Soolin, Vila, Dayna, and Blake. “I heard you were cold but I didn’t think you were that frozen.”

“They aren’t dead.” Avon sneered, “Just stunned. Now if you and your… people will hurry up and move them, I can get us all off this useless rock.”

Lethro nodded and waved some of his fellow rebels forward. Two each picked up the stunned Scorpio Crew and headed out. Lethro nodded to Avon and led the way out.

 

//||\\\

 

Avon stretched slowly, as he pushed back from the console. “Done.”

Lethro nodded, “Good. So what exactly did you do?”

“I convinced the computer to send out a distress signal to the nearest federation ship under a certain weight and armament class. Nothing stronger than the ships that are orbiting this planet. When they come, you enter another program that is preloaded. It will invade their systems, shut down their weapons while still saying they are active, and seize the computers.  I will have the antidote on a portable drive.

“When you take over the ships, you unload the Federation troops down here while you take their ships. Considering how much travel time these ships log, it should be a full year or year and half before Central notices the ships are disappearing.” Avon explained.

“Wow, that’s amazing.” Lethro leaned against a support column next to the console.

“Of course it is.”

“So, your program will also keep them for calling for help, right?”

“Yes, and it will also cause the record of the distress call to disappear from the system, so nothing leads back to here.”

“I’m…stunned. What exactly was the Federation after you for?”

“Their systems liked me more than them.” Avon drawled.

Lethro laughed happily. “Fine, well since the Scorpio is DOA, I suggest you pick one of the fleet for your new ship. If you plan to keep up doing what you were doing.”

“Indeed. First though, I will need to salvage some things from the Scorpio. If it is fixable, we might just decide to keep it.”

“I don’t think it is salvageable. But I’ll have Renet look at it. Or are you a miracle mechanic as well?”

Avon smiled tightly. “No, that will be fine.”

“Good,” Lethro straightened up and moved over to stand next to Avon, “Need me to show you where your bed is?”

Avon looked up at him and shook his head. “Appreciated but no.” Avon stood.

Lethro shrugged, “Had to try, you aren’t the friendliest guy around but there is something about you, something that just makes people fascinated by you.

Avon stared at him for a moment, “But not follow me.”

Lethro looked into the dark eyes, “No, not follow you. So how about I take you to the quarters where we put your people. Get some sleep, tomorrow Renet can take you to the Scorpio.”

Avon nodded as they left the computer room and headed over to the former Officer Quarters. Lethro led him up to the second floor, a suite of rooms that overlooked the central courtyard. Lethro pointed out which room each person was in before opening the door to the largest room, the commander’s room.

Avon raised one eyebrow.

“Well you are the leader of this little troop.”

“Am I?”

“Of course.” Lethro turned and headed towards the door,

 

//||\\\

 

Avon watched as the sun crept across the floor to fall on Roj Blake’s face. The man was slow to wake, even while watched. Yet it gave him time to try to puzzle out a bit more about Lethro. Such as the conversation, he overheard yesterday, yet was it by chance or did Lethro know he was there. He thought about his own observation and concluded that there was more to Lethro than met the eyes, something unseen. Yet most psychics stayed out of his head, for good reason. It had to be more than ‘being good for people’. On the bed, Blake stirred and his eyes opened. He stared at Avon for a moment, before moving to sit up.

“Avon.”

“Understand something Blake, I may need you for the ability to lead these fools but do not think for one moment that I need you in particular. I can always make you into a martyr and select another fool to gladly be a puppet.”

Roj stared at Avon.

“It’s been a bad two years for you, hasn’t it Avon? Never thought that I would miss your threats and jibes. I am actually surprised that everyone is alive and you haven’t killed them for annoying you. And believe me, I know that they have annoyed you.”

Avon frowned, standing up.

“I need you too. I need you for that sharp wit, that amoral viewpoint, that absolutely practical judgment that I don’t have. You can’t lead the resistance. I can see it on you. It’s driving you insane with the pressure, the balancing of human needs with practical considerations.

“If you weren’t nearly mad, you would have known I didn’t betray you and don’t tell me that you meant to stun me. You meant to kill me. I appreciate that.

“We need each other, Avon. Of all the crew it was you that I missed most. I missed your attitude, sitting in silence with you, just being with you.

“You _do_ need me in particular and I need you. That’s how it’s going to be and I really find I like that.”

Avon opened the door and stared. Thinking back to the conversation he had overheard, he frowned. “Yesterday, someone said I could only love someone who had a core of quarsteel, and then they wondered if that person was you. How disappointed he would be to find out that your core is full of fluff.”

Roj watched as Avon left, a frown crossing his face as he thought over what had been said.

As Avon crossed the room, he heard laughter from behind the door.

 

//||\\\

 

Avon watched as Lethro wandered among the rebels. Sometimes he spoke to them, sometimes he placed a hand on an arm or knee. Sometimes he allowed them to vent to him, yet everyone seemed to gravitate around him. Something about him was off. No one was friends with everyone that way. Of course, Lethro was a trouble shooter for the Council with all the duties that entailed, though counsellor for everyone didn’t seem to be the thing to do.

Lethro looked up, eyebrow quirking as he said something to one of the men before walking over. “Do you need to talk?”

Avon gave him a flat stare.

“Is the computer giving you trouble? It’s been almost three weeks.”

Avon said nothing, dark eyes turning to stare out at the dining hall and the various cliques.

“You are thinking of our last conversation when I said that people are fascinated by you but they won’t follow you.”

Avon turned towards him, “And do you believe that your words mean so much to me?”

“No, of course not but you are also curious about what I meant. And my function here. Do you think I don’t notice you watching? Of course I do. You want to know why me, what kind of trouble shooter I am. I have many skills but I also can manage groups. I keep some cells from splintering. This group is rough, very rough. Tension runs high. Fights are common, I make sure no one dies. I drain the infection. I’m a social doctor of sorts. That’s why I can tell you that almost everyone at this camp is fascinated by you. I see their eyes follow you but they would not follow you or your lead."

Lethro looked into the dark eyes, “No, not follow you. I have watched you for a while. Ever since you landed here on Gauda Prime. Even before, when the Council knew you were looking for Blake, we watched you. You refused to let anyone close, but we could see your waves. We could see where you have been. We have had you under observation even as your paranoia increased. Now, you have come here, where I can see you. See you in ways that I am not yet willing to share with you. I have observed you, these past weeks, while here on Gauda Prime and it only reinforces what we have thought about you. No one can follow you because anyone who follows you is weaker than you and you have no place in your heart for weakness.

“I don’t mean that you don’t like people because they are human but they have to have an inner core of absolute quarsteel to walk beside you. You would despise being followed; if they can’t walk beside you, then why would you have them around? I… think that if you ever did love, your love would consume someone unless they were exceptionally strong.”

Avon nodded. “Indeed.”

“Avon, a personal question?”

Avon waited.

“Was it Blake?”

Avon laughed.

He strode through the hallways until he came to his room. Opening the door, he barely noticed Vila on the floor, his back propped against the bed. He was playing with a small cube with a pattern of lights of in different colors on each face.

“One of the others gave it to me. I was getting twitchy. I have to get each side to be one color.” Vila looked at him. “What’s wrong?”

Avon reached out and grasped him by the chin, his black eyes staring into Vila’s, who did not flinch nor blink. Avon let him go after a few moment and nodded. _He is wrong, there is one who will follow me. Even if he should know better._

 

//||\\\

 

Avon sat in his chair, the plate of food before him as the others chatted. Suddenly silence fell as Blake entered the room. He looked at each of them before placing one hand on Avon’s shoulder. “Morning.”

Vila looked at the others before nodding. “Morning Blake.”

“Tarrant, is the Scorpio salvageable?”

Tarrant shook his curly head, “I doubt it. It was a hard landing. Orac predicted that we would have to move to another ship and left me instructions on how best to shield myself in case of a crash before Avon hid him on the planet.” better

“So  Yeah, Orac survived” Vila asked smiling. “Should have known. Trust that box of chips would manage to survive!”

“Orac?” Lethro stopped as he entered the room. “Well it’s good to see all of you up and about. I guess Avon was right, you were just stunned. Anyways, I wanted to introduce you to Renet.” Lethro waved to the man behind him. He was about half as wide as he was tall, his hair pulled back into a braid.

“Welcome everyone, as Leth said, I’m Renet. Leth said that you crashed your ship, well I’m good at putting ships back together so we’ll have a look.”

“I’m Vila,” the short thief mentioned before pointing at people in turn, “the pretty lady with the curly hair is Dayna, the tall bloke is Tarrant, the pretty one with straight hair is Soolin, the grouchy, frowny one is Avon and the guy next to him is Blake.”

“Pleased to meet all of you.  Wait. Avon… why does that sound familiar?

“If you don’t mind, what’s your full name?”

“Kerr Avon.”

Renet frowned… and hmmmed. “Wait, yeah, I remember now. You’re Stellar.”

Lethro laughed, “Yeah, he is. You should see the program he came up with to trap some Federation ships!”

“No, Lethro, I mean he’s STELLAR!”

Lethro looked at his friend and then back at the group.

Renet frowned. “I mean that’s his rank, Stellar. It comes from the fact that no one could handle him or catch him. He could ghost through the systems like he wasn’t there. Hackers, Crackers, and Snappers as they call them are just low level computer geniuses. As they get better they go higher up. And it’s Global, System, even Quadrant. Yet, no one is _called_ Stellar. It’s a ranking and well, there is one guy that’s better than Stellar, by the Prime, he’s better than Galaxy class. They made up a class for him all by his lonesome, and that class is called Stellaria and well, he took his name from the class because he’s the only one in there.

“To think I get to meet Stellar. It’s a great pleasure! This man managed to hijack no less than nine hundred million Federation credits though I think they only found about a hundred and ninety million or so.”

Avon smirked. “Indeed.”

Vila stared at him. “Wait you mean Avon’s nothing more than a hacker? I mean, I know he’s a thief but he made it sound… After all the grief he gave me calling me _petty_ thief, he’s nothing more than a _common_ _hacker_?”

Avon glared at the idea that he was a _common hacker_.

“Well no, he’s to a hacker what a black hole is to a sinkhole.

“If we can get your ship out, might you need some help getting it running again? We’ve got someone from a long ways away but he’s good. He’s here for a while.”

Avon stared for a moment then nodded.

Renet smiled. “Good, let me go get him.”

Lethro stared at Avon as Renet left. “Ahem, ‘Their computers like me more than them’? Like I said before, you are amazing.”

Vila groaned and the bitterness in his reply stunned even him, “Don’t tell him that, he’ll get even more stuck up. Besides he’s not at all a nice guy.”

Blake looked at the two of them. “Vila?”

“What? He’s not Blake, you flaked out and he… he got obsessed. Didn’t matter who or what suffered, he had to _find_ you. He had to save you. He would have killed the entire universe if it stood between you and him!”

Dayna reached over and covered his clenched fist with her hand, “Vila…”

“What?! He tried to throw me out a spaceship! He ended up setting us all up to get shot! He finds Blake and tries to kill him. The man is…”

“Fine.” Blake stood up. “He’s fine. I… don’t understand why he did what he did. I can’t even ask you to forgive him Vila but if you want to blame someone blame me. I left him in an untenable position.”

Blake turned towards Avon and his mouth quirked. “He’s not a people person, he doesn’t do well with making decisions that take into account humans. I knew that and I still left him alone. So blame me. Besides, you’ve been his friend for what, almost four years. When has he ever shown good interpersonal skills?”

Vila snarled. “Of course I blame you, and I already forgave him, that wasn’t the hard part. It’s part of Avon… but it’s the trust that’s the problem! No matter what, I always knew he had a plan and that plan would save us, but **that** plan required my death.” Vila sighed and turned towards Avon and sighed. “True. Sorry but Avon, as a friend you suck… but I guess you won’t get any better if we left you alone.”

Avon sneered at him. “You needn’t be so… _kind_.”

Vila rolled his eyes. “I won’t be. See… this is something you gotta learn. How to be a better friend, which means you gotta make it up to me. Maybe help me steal something spectacular.” Vila ate slowly while looking off into the distance, dreamy-eyed.

Dayna looked at Soolin which set them off laughing while Del Tarrant shook his head and decided to pay more attention to his breakfast. Blake shrugged at Lethro and sat back down to eat.

Twenty minutes later, Renet came back in dragging a taller man by his wrist. “Coll, this is him. This is who I wanted to show you. His name is Kerr Avon, he’s the only Stellar in existence.”

The man who was half a foot taller than Renet smiled at his companion’s antics until he heard other man’s name. He pushed a shoulder sack back behind himself.

“No, he’s not.”

Avon turned to stare at him, his voice lowered to cut the other man. “I think I know who I am better than you.”

Blake dropped his fork and turned around, his body tense.

“No, you are not Kerr Avon. Kerr Avon is dead and has been for a dozen years. I don’t know who you are but you most certainly can not be Kerr Avon.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edited, thanks to NannaSally.  
> I hope it makes more sense!

The others looked at Avon who slowly stood up, his eyes staring down the other man. “And you would have proof of this, before I kill you?”

Coll stared back, “Zethyr says his husband was murdered by the Federation just over twelve years ago. So you can’t be him.”

Avon jerked back, “Zethyr couldn’t have seen anything… _Zethyr_ is dead.”

Coll stared at him. “If you are really Kerr Avon, then prove it. I have something that only Kerr could open. He’s the only person who could. I can’t even do it.” 

Coll reached for his shoulder sack, and opened it. He took out a small box. It was maybe six inches long, four inches high, and 6 inches wide.

Avon looked at the box before he flew into action. He grabbed Coll by the neck and shoved him back into against the wall. His other hand grasped the wrist above the box and squeezed. “How did you come to have this?”

Coll tried to speak, his eyes bulging as Avon’s hand tightened.

“HOW!?”

“Z-z-zethyr. for you-r mo-th-h-h-er.”

//||\\\

9/4/111

_Rosel Academy_

Avon sat in the shadows, watching the teenager seated at the common room table. He held a small wooden box turning it every which way, studying it before sliding one honey coloured panel out, then he started examining it again until he chose a reddish panel and moved it. Slowly but surely, he slid open each panel until all that was left was a gray block.

Avon moved up behind him and leaned over to whisper. “Didn’t think anyone would be able to get it open.”

The other teenager turned to him and smiled, teeth gleaming in a warm dark face. “Is it yours? What is it?”

“It’s an Asian puzzle box. People would hide secrets in it. Then send it off to their family or friends who knew how to open it.” Avon explained.

“Did you make this puzzle box?”

“No. My mother did. Before they sent me,” Avon sneered, “here.”

“Ahhh… but you still get to see them right?”

“Yes.”

“Mine signed me over to the centre. The personality grafts never take. They fade after a year or two.”

Avon stared at the young teen. “I don’t know, you seem to be fine with me.”

“Yeah, but you’re real! So, what secrets are in here? Is there a key?”

Avon nodded. Reaching towards the box, he pressed it in a specific pattern before brushing his forefinger across the top. The box clicked softly and the top opened slightly. The other teen opened the box to discover nothing in it. Dejected his shoulder slumped.

“There’s nothing inside?”

“Not yet.” Avon took the other boy’s hand and folded it until only his forefinger was held out. Gently, he brushed it over a small sensor on the inside of the box. “Now you can open it too.”

“But it’s your box!”

“Kerr Avon.”

“Zethyr.”

“Zethyr?”

“Ari but I don’t particularly like my last name. Can I have yours?”

Kerr smiled slowly. “I don’t think the Federation will approve. They usually want a reason to change your name.

Zethyr laughed again, “Fine, I’ll marry you and then they’ll have to let me change my name!”

Avon chuckled and stood up. “I will see you around Zethyr. Maybe you can add a secret to the box.”

Zethyr just smiled.

//||\\\

Avon woke to the soft chiming of the morning bell. Yawning, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and walked slowly towards the bathroom. Turning to check the floor under the door for messages, he stopped and smiled. On his desk was the closed puzzle box.

//||\\\

Present

Avon squeezed Coll’s wrist once more, forcing him to drop the box which he spun and caught. Turning around, his fingers flashed as he unlocked the box. Finally, all panels moved out of the way, he hesitated at the fingerprint scanner. He brushed one forefinger across the scanner and heard a soft click.

“You said this was for my mother?”

Coll coughed and tried to speak, “Yes. However, and I am sorry, but when I got to the planet, she had… died. I stayed to investigate if the Federation was involved. I thought…” Coll coughed again, harshly, “I thought I needed to know for Zethyr. But it wasn’t the Federation. You may not remember this but every forty years or so you get a resurgence of Clematis Fever?”

Avon nodded. “Yes, they frequently try to eradicate it. Every time they think they have it returns and is harder to kill.”

“Ah, well I made arrangements to have her body handled in what I was assured was the proper way. I carry her remains back to Zethyr… but I guess I should give them to you.” Coll stepped closer, pulling a small sealed jar from his sack.

“Yes.” Avon didn’t move to take it and Coll looked uncomfortable.

Blake moved forward and took the jar before moving to stand next to Avon. “Open it.”

Avon looked at him before pushing the top open. Several crystals sat inside with three locks of hair. One of which he recognized as his own, another as that of Zethyr’s… meaning the third must be their daughter. A memory stirred of the last time he had seen Xerise, at the medical center and the small form of his developing child on the screen. Even Zethyr seemed amazed.

“Her name is Terkerra. The crystals have some pictures and video of Zethyr and Terkerra. Every time the box changes hands they add more and more memories. She’s a wonderful child, bright as …well… you, Kerr. She has a lovely laugh, her best friend is named Molla, who is a child of another Resistance Leader. Oh, Zethyr is in charge of the Resistance in the whole sector. Forgot to tell you that. He’s never remarried either.”

Avon turned to look at him. “Zethyr, a leader? Well he always did have charm but I didn’t think he would… enjoy such a role.”

“Well, I’ve been with him since the beginning and I can say that in the beginning, he was a bit awkward but he got better. Once Tera, your daughter, got to be of an age where she could be cared for while he was doing other work, he changed. He buckled down. He said that his daughter deserved a star so he had to be a star.”

Avon nodded. “He was always good at pretending.”

Blake put a hand on Avon’s shoulder. “I think that our first stop should be to visit this Zethyr. Check him out and see if he’s good enough for our Avon.”

Tarrant choked. “Goo… umm sure. Which sector is it?”

Renet smiled, “Second Sector, a bit far, especially since it appears that Avon was raised in this Sector.” 

“My planet didn’t have the appropriate educational opportunities and even though Mother was originally Terran, the best educational opportunity was at the Rosel School in this Sector. I met Zethyr there.”

Vila stared at him. “Rosel? _You_ went to Rosel, you never said!”

Tarrant shook his head, “We should have figured.”

Soolin stared at them and back at the other men in the room, all of whom were looking at Avon with a mixture of respect and fear.

“Dayna? Do you know what this Rosel is?”

Dayna frowned. “No, the only Rosel I know is Bothan Rosel. He was the genius behind psychological transplants.”

“Yes… a genius.” Avon said with a twisted smile.

Blake cleared his throat. “The Rosel school is special. It is for children who can’t be handled in regular school.”

“He means it’s for psychopaths and sociopaths!” Vila explained.

“Yes…. psychopaths and sociopaths neither of which I am. I went to the school because the Federation wanted to use my computer skills. And Rosel has the best and brightest teachers of the Federation.

“Ensor even taught a seminar there. However, while I was there for the education, Zethyr was ... signed over to the school. Apparently, his personality transplants only lasted a year or two before breaking down. They never could get him to understand right and wrong, good or evil. We had such fun!”

Tarrant looked around, “How did he make it out of Rosel? Usually anyone who is that sociopathic can’t pass the tests.”

“I was not always the Federation’s number _two_ computer man.” Avon smirked. “Of course, as long as we were together, he usually managed to fool people. They thought it adorable that he didn’t want his exit interview without his boyfriend.”

Coll stared at him, “A sociopath, Zethyr? Are we talking the same guy? About five foot ten, light grey eyes, dark brown hair, usually pulled back in a braid?”

“Zethyr Ar-Avon, yes, my… husband.”

“But…”

Blake shook his head. “Sociopaths can mimic normal behavior. They usually have to have a focus but once they do, there’s nothing stopping them. In fact, I’m surprised they didn’t try to induct him into the armed forces or intelligence.”

“They couldn’t. Zethyr has a failing that prevents it.”

Coll shook his head, he had no clue.

Avon raised one eyebrow at Lethro. “He’s _weak_.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moving Forward, Beta'd 3/5/17  
> Gauda Prime is being left behind and the long voyage home for Avon is beginning.

**Chapter 3**

Tarrant pointed off to the right, “There she is. Shame about her being stuck in the river, maybe she can be hauled out but I don’t know if she can be fixed.”

Renet stared at the ship. “I thought you said you did a _controlled_ crash. She’s missing her wings, all her engines, her belly is open and the top is half peeled off. I don’t think she can be made space worthy and if I did fix her, I wouldn’t fly in her. I may be good but I am not a god.”

Lethro sighed. “I wouldn’t either. Avon, you’re just going to have to take one of the Federation ships. Pick one and rewire the computer so they can’t take it back. We’ll help you take it. Most of them only have skeleton crews onboard right now, so it won’t be hard. Well, it won’t be if we can use that program of yours to shut down their ship. Can we?”

Avon stared at the wrecked ship before nodding, “Of course we can. Right now though, everyone get on board and salvage what you can. Dayna, make sure to get the weapons. Tarrant, download all the flight data from the computer if you can. Soolin, check the medical bay. Vila, help where you can.”

Blake stepped forward, “Avon?”

“Go with Soolin and don’t argue for once.”

Avon turned away and leapt lightly from the skiff. Moving towards the downed Scorpio, he didn’t look back.

Vila shrugged. “Well, Lethro is it? Wanna help me get some stuff from the ship? Oi, the rest of you, get what you want in a pack and we’ll bring it out to the small floaty thing here.”

Renet winced, “It’s a skiff, Villy boy, a skiff.”

Vila just looked at him for a moment. “It’s an unstable floaty thing that twice tried to kill me on the way here.”

Renet snorted and leapt out. Tying the skiff to a rock, he walked towards the unrecoverable craft. “So point me to what you want me to do? Otherwise, I have my tools and I’ll see what parts of the ship I can salvage.”

Tarrant nodded and tugged Renet towards the ship. Coll, who had remained silent, stared at them before following Avon.

 

//||\\\

 

Vila stared around his bunk. There hadn’t been much in his room at the base, but what he had managed to bring had been tossed about and in many cases broken. Heading towards the closet, he pulled out a medium duffle bag and started packing. His clothing, he rolled up to save space.

There were a few crystals of pictures and a couple of books. He opened one flap of the bag and realized things had been so packed in there that there wasn’t that much damage. As he pulled things out, checking he’d forgotten nothing, he noticed two book crystals. Pulling them out, he stared at them closely. Avon had given them to him. He knew he wasn’t the well-read genius that Avon was but he wasn’t an idiot and he knew what Avon was trying to do. The cranky bastard was trying to educate him. He had said that those books were classics. Sighing he put them into the pack, maybe he should read them.

As he moved to leave, he remembered one last gift, a book they had picked up on Medeyev. Avon had wanted it and put it back. So Vila went back later and picked it up. Avon wouldn’t accept it, told Vila to read it. It was interesting. That Musashi guy was really easy to understand even if he didn’t know what Gorin Nosho meant. In fact he could see Avon as Ground, though he could do with a bit of Water too.

Two ships in four years. The first blown up and the second crashed.

“Well, third time’s the charm now isn’t it.”

A knock on the door and Dayna stuck her head in. “Hey, do you need any help?”

“No, thanks love. It’s funny though, when you think about it. This old rattletrap is almost like home even though we only been here maybe two years. Maybe that old saying about third time’s a charm means we’ll get to keep the new ship.”

Dayna stepped in and nodded, “That would be good. She may have been old and rusty but she was a good ship wasn’t she?”

“Yeah, so I’m done here, you need help?”

“Nah. I have everything packed, I’m going to head over to the armory and see what we can save.”

“Go ahead, lock it and I’ll take your pack out. I have to track down Tarrant and see if needs help on the flight deck.”

“Thanks, Vila.” Dayna shifted her bag until she could lock it with one hand then dropped it next to the door. “I’ll see you back at the boat soon.”

“Sure.”

 

//||\\\

 

Dayna headed down the corridor quickly, and into the armory. She had taken several of the weapons earlier when they had abandoned ship but some of the stuff she’d been unable to take before, she was going to take now, including the survival packs. Especially the ones with the inflatable rubber boats.

Grabbing one, she headed towards the storage locker and pulled out several large transport bags. Grinning happily, she started to fill them and placed them on a gravity sled. Once she filled up one bag, she strapped it down and went onto another. Soon, the gravity sled was barely hovering over the floor, so she got a second one and tethered it to the first. She retrieved all the weapons she could. Two hours later, she walked down the hall whistling.

 

//||\\\

 

Tarrant stared at the wreck of the guidance computer. “Renet, do you have anything that can help salvage the data?”

“No, I don’t. Coll might though.”

“Oh, where is he?”

“With Avon, ever since he found out who your friend is, he’s been following him like a little puppy. I asked him about it and you know what he told me? ‘With our luck, right before Avon meets up with his family, he’ll die. Then what will I have to tell Zethyr? No, I will get between Avon and any trouble that even tries to look at him.’ Apparently, he’s decided that until Avon is delivered to Zethyr, he’s going to be Avon’s shadow.”

Tarrant shook his head. “It’s hard to think of Avon as being someone to inspire such… faith or devotion. He’s cold… calculating, cruel, obsessive, and dictatorial.”

Renet frowned, turning to look at the younger man, a frown on his face. “Is there nothing good about him? Nothing you can think of to say that is good.”

Tarrant stared blankly before his face twisted in a slight grimace. “He’s loyal. He’s determined. He will risk his life to save you if you are a member of his crew but only up to a point. If saving you will risk the mission then he won’t save you. He’ll try but he _will_ cut his losses.”

Renet nodded, “So he’s a leader. Tarrant, how is that any different from any other leader? I mean he may be a bit colder than most but seriously, a good leader knows when to cut his losses and every single one of us in the Resistance knows that some of us may be sacrificed or even die to save the entire Resistance.”

Tarrant frowned, “Maybe but I didn’t exactly sign up with the Resistance because of some loyalty to it, I sorta fell into it.”

“Fell, how?”

“The Federation did not live up to its reputation – it betrayed our trust and used us to slaughter its citizens. So I stole a pursuit ship, and became a mercenary, I even made good money. I was in the battle with the Andromedans, got my ship blown out from under me and picked up by the Federation. I got a uniform and escaped, when that one also got destroyed, drifted in a capsule until I found an abandoned ship. Well I thought it was. It was the _Liberator_. The Federation had already boarded it and since my insignia placed me in charge, I led them all one by one into traps. Avon and Liberator helped me kill them all. So then I joined them. Like I said, I fell into it.” Tarrant shrugged.

“Well, welcome to the Resistance and know that if I can rescue you, if it is at all possible I will, but the Resistance is bigger than either of us.”

“Yeah, but how exactly are we going to win? What happens if you do destroy the Federation?”

“We don’t want to destroy the Federation, that would be insane. We want to destroy the upper echelon. For the most part the Federation isn’t evil. It’s just that the ones who make the decisions have forgotten how to be human. We want to destroy them and replace them with people who can do what is needed. I will tell you that none of the top of the Resistance people will be eligible. They tend to suffer from the same problem – they think they know what’s best for everybody. However, at least they know they suffer from it and have asked that they be killed if they ever fall to the level of arrogance the Federation leaders show.”

Tarrant raised one eyebrow. “Truly?”

“Yes. Sector Leaders can not be Sector Leaders in the new Federation, if we ever get the Rebellion there. Although they can be leader in smaller locales.”

“Really, so Blake…?”

“Is part of the Resistance, true but considering how much his brain has been manipulated, under no circumstances can he be a Sector Leader or above. Yet Avon is valid because he’s not a Sector leader. So too are you or Vila or any of the crew.”

“So, tell me…”

 

//||\\\

 

Soolin frowned as she once again went through the stack to decide what they could and could not take. Leaving any of it went against the grain. A flash from the corner of her eye caused her to look up to see a line of gravity sleds floating past. Curious she stepped out and saw Dayna at the head of this convoy.

“Dayna, we can’t take all that.”

Dayna stopped and smiled at her. “True we couldn’t take them all on the boat, it’s too small. But I have two things that will solve that problem - Inflatable Rafts and Rope. I always wondered why we had so many of them.”

Soolin grinned. “Well, do you have any extra?”

Dayna laughed and reached into the first bundle and pulled out a set of flattened packs. “Here ya go!”

Soon reached for them and smiled at her. “Thanks, beautiful!”

Turning back and clutching the packet of rubber boats, she headed back into the med bay. Now, she only had to choose what was redundant - everything else would be floating right behind them.

 

//||\\\

 

Lethro leaned against the tree and stretched. While he did have to admit that Dayna’s idea had merit, exactly how many boats would be following them? It wasn’t like they were going to hit the wide part of the river soon. He could just see all these boats tangled in the large roots of the swamp trees.

A flow of grumbled swearing reached his ears. Turning to find the source, he saw Renet carrying a large piece of equipment and staring at the piles of salvage.

“And where do these bloody bastards think we are going to put all this?”

Lethro shrugged and reached out to help Renet, “I have no idea but the dark lady said she had a plan.”

Renet stared at him over the clumsy equipment. “Tell me and I’ll tell you if it’ll work!”

“No, I’ll just wait until she tells you herself.”

“Leth…”

“It might work, they did think it through and if they used tight enough knots...”

Renet growled and watched his friend shoulder part of the burden. “You have an evil side to you.”

Lethro just laughed and continued onto the shore.

Renet groaned as he set his load down and bent to work the kinks out of his back. “Ok, you evil malkins, what are you up to?”

Dayna fluttered her lashes, “Us? Evil, and not just evil but Evil Malkins! How do you like that, Tarrant?”

“I might not like it at all if I knew what a malkin was.”

Vila chuckled, “It’s nothin’ too bad. Just one of them meow cats.”

“Yes, they used to be called greymalkins, the grey ones at least. But cats have gotten a bad reputation for being sneaky and mean. People just don’t know how to deal with an animal who acts like Avon. All huffy and bristly, aloof and distant, yet they have large hearts and know when you need them around.”

Tarrant just stared at them. “Renet, can I change my mind?”

Renet burst out laughing, “Nah, they’re yours now.”

“Fine.”

Avon strode to the group, a look of frustration and annoyance on his face. Coll following him silently. Blake brought up the rear looking amused. Avon scanned the ground in front of them then looked directly at them, one eyebrow rising slowly.

Dayna stepped forward indicating the boats. “I thought if we attach the boats securely together and then attach them to the original boat then we can get it all out. Makes no sense to leave any good weapons or medicines behind. What we don’t want to keep we can sell or give away.”

Lethro murmured agreement. “How well stocked was your med bay?”

“Well, we hit a medical transport right before heading to Gauda Prime, so currently we have much more than usual including some of the newest generations of medication. Why?”

Lethro bit his lip. “If you have Simasten in there, there’s a plague on Tara. It’s not killing so much as debilitating. The Federation has been ignoring their pleas for months. If they had enough of Simasten so that they could reverse engineer it, it would go a long way towards getting them away from the Federation.”

Dayna frowned, “I think we do. Soolin?”

“Yes, we have several cases. But I don’t think the ship was on the way to Tara.”

“It wasn’t.” Avon answered flatly. “It was on its way to Eire which is in the same system. Eire and Tara have been fighting for over a century. Lately Eire has been running straight ahead with possessing as much of the spatial real estate as possible.”

Coll frowned, “Is it possible that the Federation or Eire developed this virus?”

Blake nodded, “It is but to prove it, that’s another thing. Simasten is proprietary. Only the Federation has the formula. If they can reverse engineer it and give us the formula, we can break their monopoly on that drug.”

“Thank you.” Lethro sighed. “While you were doing this, I downloaded the specs on the ships above and I think I’ve found one that would be good for you. It’s a bit large for nine people, but with Orac, you should be able to handle it and maybe he won’t get so bored.”

“Nine? But there’s only seven of us, if you include Orac.”

Leth nodded. “True but Coll is going with you, otherwise you won’t be able to get close to Zethyr. I’m coming along as well.”

“Are you?”

“Yes, Avon I am. You do realize that Gauda Prime is not my home base. I was an outsider here to assess their abilities and help select a new leader for them. I don’t have a Sector per se but I travel from Sector to Sector in order to relay orders from the top down or to troubleshoot problems. Of course part of that is secrecy. I was here for two months before I could contact the local Resistance group and then three months moving up. I didn’t use my real name as that would reveal who I am. It was only after analysing the state of the group from outside and inside that I told Renet who I was and what I was after Tharly died because of turmoil, you saw it. Part of the problem was you, Blake, poaching the better ones; but since I am removing him, all those will fall under the new leadership and it’s up to them to keep their loyalty. I would really hate to come back and deal with it. You do know that you were a problem for me. Now, however Blake has his crew back and you all will be leaving this planet.” He told them as the others approached.

“And if I don’t?” Blake asked firmly.

“Blake, I am a troubleshooter… emphasis on shooter. Trust me, _you_ will be leaving this planet after you instruct your followers to join the Resistance cell here. I will try not to hurt you; I may just drug you but it’s up to you whether you walk off or be carried.” Lethro said calmly. His eyes hard even as he smiled genially. “Be content with your crew, you were before and you were useful. Besides, I know all of you want to see Zethyr and Avon reunite. Romantics the lot of you. Not to mention, I want to see this amazing person who so captured your heart that when you lost him you tried to turn it to stone.”

Lethro chuckled as he stepped closer to Avon, placing his hand over the other’s heart gently, his voice softening. “Yet there is a problem with that. Right now, the problem I see isn’t so much a problem with Zethyr or yourself but the fact that the two of you didn’t know that each other was alive. That shows a true lack of communication among the top echelons. If we can’t solve this problem, then what are we fighting for? I know about Anna Grant but Avon, someone as bright and perceptive as you, and you didn’t know she was a spy? You killed her. You shot her because she had betrayed you and endangered your crew. It may have hurt you but if I think that even if Zethyr killed every single person here save you, you would forgive him. I think if he put a gun to this heart, right now, and pulled the trigger, you would still forgive him. You didn’t love Anna Grant the way you love Zethyr. I can _see </> that. I want to meet the person who is that… amazing.”_

Avon nodded once. “When I was nineteen, I woke up to find him straddling me. He had a knife and was cutting shallow cuts into my chest and asked if I would mind leaving him my heart when I died. He would put it in the box. I signed the papers the next day.”

The group watched him as he stared directly into Lethro’s eyes.

“That’s why I want to meet him. Now, Dayna, since these are from survival packs, I’m going to assume they are self-inflating, right?”

“Yeah…”

 

//||\\\

 

Simmin scanned the river, watching for the foreign foraging group to come out of the swampy creek. Lethro had sent a message saying they were going to head for the river and to bring a ship with plenty of help to unload some gear. A whistle pierced the air as Chivver on starboard located them. Turning around to use his binoculars to spot them he almost choked on his whistle. It was them alright. That was Renet’s skiff but behind them like little black boulders were twenty or so rubber rafts filled with everything but the kitchen sink.

Simmin had thought they were joking when Renet had reinforced the idea to bring at least ten men but he wasn’t kidding at all was he? Shaking his head, he pulled his radio up and gave the skipper directions to where they were. It was going to be a long haul. Switching channels, he called the other men up and waited as they pulled alongside.

“Yo! Renet, I thought you were planning to leave the ship, not bring it back in pieces!”

Renet glared at him. “Shut your hole and help us with this. They had a full med bay and armoury!”

Simmin grinned. Maybe they would be willing to part with some of their salvaged goods. Waving the crew forward, they started to unload the small boats. An hour later the crew groaned as they unloaded the last one and hauled it up to the deck. Dayna stepped forward to deflate it. Turning to Renet she grinned. “Told you it would work.”

“Yeah, yeah. Simmin, let’s go.”

 

//||\\\

 

“So Lethro, you weren’t you supposed to take over as the leader of the Gauda Prime Resistance?” Blake asked as they settled in the cabin.

“No, like I said back at the wreck, I am a trouble shooter. My job is to wander the universe contacting resistance cells and fixing the problems. Gauda Prime was in a bit of a mess. Too many disputes between their leader and their crew. The Resistance was worried that it would fall apart, especially if you were killed since you decided to compete with the local Resistance. Worse, if we needed you elsewhere would they descend into a group of thugs. and That’s why you _will_ be speaking to them. We need more than gunslingers and brawlers, we need thinkers and that’s why I was sent, to assess, learn, and stabilize this area. And remove you if necessary which it is. Of course if I did that then there would have been too much infighting about who should become the new planetary leader. Your situation got so bad, the Federation even noticed. Not only did they notice but they tried to take advantage of it. Why else do you think we have all those ships in orbit? Anyways, for now, I am the leader both because I need to assess whether someone should move up from within or if we should bring someone from without and you _are_ leaving. It took me a while to make my decision.”

Soolin nodded, “But what if they don’t want to accept your choice?”

“That’s part of being the type of troubleshooter that I am. I have a… _talent_ for assessing people. Yet another reason that I want to meet this husband of Avon’s. I have never met him and he’s rather high up in the organization. I think I should meet him. If he’s as… sociopathic as you say, then what is keeping him from betraying us? What is he waiting for?”

“He won’t betray us.” Coll whispered. He licked his lips and spoke louder. “He won’t because he thinks that the Federation killed Avon who was his sole focus in life. Kerr Avon, you assume that Terkerra is a child born from whatever genetic deposit you left. She’s not. She’s the child your host mother was carrying at the time you thought she died. She had a bout of morning sickness, a rather large one. She got off maybe three or four stations before reaching campus. She wasn’t there when the bombs on the transport lines went off. The city was in chaos, so she hid, and then she saw your name on the list of dead from other transport stations. Knowing as she did that you did some shady work, she ran to your family as you requested months earlier, to your mother.

“Zethyr arrived a couple weeks later and when she gave birth, he showed your daughter to your mother. They stayed less than a month and then left. He didn’t want to put your mother in danger but if anyone ran a gene scan on Tekerra they would know that she was child of the infamous and unparalleled Kerr Avon, so he went to the Resistance. They hid them knowing her pedigree. It was obvious that she was designed and to think that any parent wouldn’t pass on his amazing intellect would be laughable. The Resistance knew this, so they offered the sanctuary. In return, she gets the best education we can give her. Practically nothing is denied her. This is why he won’t betray us. He may leave us but he’ll never betray us. He might be a sociopath but when Avon died, his focus shifted to his daughter. Avon’s daughter. How like you she looks. Her hair is as dark and rich as yours. Her eyes are Zethyr’s, her skin is pale but she doesn’t burn. Her lips are yours, her nose is Zethyr’s, her wit is much like yours but with less cynicism. You really should watch some of those crystals. “Trust me on this, Lethro, he will sacrifice anything that could harm his daughter. I… he… killed someone, a friend of his, he killed him because the man wanted something from him and threatened to tell the Federation where to find Terkerra.”

Lethro nodded, “I see and to think Avon called him weak.”

Avon’s eyes glittered and his lips curled up. “He is… when he wishes to be. After all, he can only define his existence through a focus. If not for our daughter, he would have lost himself. I can’t wait to hear how he’s dealt with it.”

“Nor can I. Now about this ship, the one I’m thinking about is a cruiser, it’s about a mile and a half long, and at the least should be manned by fifteen. I figure Orac is equivalent to ten, and then there’s us - that’s nine more. So nineteen, that’s more than enough. It’s about another two hours until we reach the base. I’m sure once we do you can use that program to capture the ship. It will be a good test of it.

“Most of the ships we’ve already contacted, bringing the troops down with messages about the commander wanting to brief the sections in person. We’ve even got some of our people on board as relief crews, so only a few of the actual crew on each ship. Ten cruisers with twenty each, eight warships with thirty five each and three battleships with forty-two each. That’s six hundred and six people for all twenty one ships. Of them, we only have a skeleton crew of four on each cruiser, five on each warship and eight each on the battleships. That’s 104 people. They already landed 502 people who we’ve already relocated. Now we’ve launched a ship to capture one of the battleship since they are in geosynchronous orbit and stable, we tell them to slave their ships to the one we’ve captured then ask them to come aboard for a conference meeting with the Federation and that they are tight beaming to one ship due to the need for secrecy. We expect to get at least half, so that will leave 52 left. Then we will launch a few more ships and that’s that.

"Once the ships are cleaned out, you can choose whether you want the one I've suggested or another one.

"We’ve selected a rather large set of islands in the middle of the main ocean. We’re dumping the crews there with supplies and survival guides. It’s over eight hundred miles to a continent. I have to credit Renet for coming up with that idea.”

“Wasn’t just me. Cherkov came up with the location.”

“Yes, I know but it was your suggestion. And with that, my decision was sealed. Gauda Prime will not have any one leader but three. Three people who can work together but aren’t so close as they’ll become tyrannical.”

Simmin jumped in shock. “So who will it be?”

“Renet will be one, Cherkov will be the other, and Simmin you will be the third. Renet you aren’t the most charismatic but you know how to get things done. Cherkov is charismatic but knows how to take orders. Simmin, there is no one better on the waterways of Gauda Prime, you know what to do to get things done. A triumvirate. Congratulations. It will be a relief to step down once we make shore.”

Simmin stared at him in either shock or horror before turning to Renet.

Renet shook his head. “He’s a bastard alright. But do we really have a choice?”

“Yes?” Simmin replied weakly.

“Really? Who would you put in charge then?”

Simmin’s shoulders slumped, “True. I won’t thank you Lethro but I accept.”

“As well as I.”

“Good… first job, once we hit land, track down Cherkov and let him know.”

“Sissy.”

“No, it’s called ‘delegation’ besides Blake is no longer be the head of the half of the Resistance of Gauda Prime.”

 


	4. Chapter 4

Cherkov glared at Lethro for third time in the past half hour as he looked at the schematics for the Torquay class cruisers hovering overhead. “I don’t think you should take that one.”

Avon turned to his and cocked his head.

“Well, I was chosen for my people skills right? Part of that is understanding and using connotations of words. You started out in a ship called the _Liberator_ , right? It sounds like something a Resistance ship should be called bringing liberation, freedom in its wake. You went to a ship called _Scorpio_ which brings to mind backstabbing or something with a sting, and why stinging Avon might be, it’s not exactly a good connotation. So taking a ship called _Vengence_?”

Tarrant snorted, “Bit not good.”

Dayna frowned, “What’s wrong with _Scorpio_?”

Vila started. “I forgot, you were so sheltered with your father. It’s a story, one of them para-bells. A frog wants to cross a river or lake or something and as he hippity hops down to the shore, he see a scorpion. The scorpion wants to get to the other side but he can’t swim. So he sees the frog and asks it for a ride. The frog looks at him like he’s crazy and says no way since the scorpion will stung him. The scorpion says he wouldn’t since he doesn’t want to drown. So the frog tells him to get on his back and off they go. Well partway there the frog feels the scorpion sting him and as they die, he asks why. The scorpion says, ‘It’s how I am’.”

Dayna nodded, “Well Avon wouldn’t do that, he’d poison you and after thanking you for the ride would wander off knowing you were going to die. Especially if you try to kill one of us.”

Cherkov smiled. “Good, that’s the kind of leader you need, but scorpion are also known to be standoffish and prickly as well as having a deadly sting. Instead, I suggest this one, _Sovereignty_. It hearkens back to the meaning of _Liberator_ with some differences. Besides, it’s three years newer than the _Vengeance_.”

Avon looked at his group who all were staring at him, “Very well. How are we supposed to get the ship?”

“Well, we’re going to send up a relief crew as they have been on duty for over two days. So we take a shuttle. I’ll get ten more people so they don’t get suspicious. Once you get inside, sedate them before putting them on the shuttle. Install Orac and off you can go when you want. Just one small thing? Do you plan on selling or trading any weapons?”

Avon turned to Dayna who nodded, “I’m sure we can spare some, not to mention the ship should have a full armory. What about weapons from those you’ve captured?”

Cherkov shook his head. “You know the Federation doesn’t trust its crew with weapons unless they are troopers. If not a trooper or an officer, they were unarmed.”

Tarrant agreed. “However every ship is to have at one weapon for each person. They are kept locked in the armory. Sealed if the armorer’s not on board.”

“If it’s a lock, I can crack it. Even if I can’t Avon could but he’d be best on the bridge.” Vila pointed out.

Tarrant shrugged. “Then we’re set. If you have uniforms we can get this started.”

“Ladies, Gentlemen, let’s get you your ship.”

 

//||\\\

 

“So tell me about Orac?”

“What’s to know, it’s an arrogant stuffy computer in a box.” Vila said.

“Okay, but the way you have mentioned Orac and considering Servalan’s absolute hunger to get her hands on it, I would like to know what makes Orac so damn important.”

“He was built by Ensor. He is the most advanced computer, actually he’s an artificial intelligence, that was ever created. Without the key, Orac can’t interface with humans. He can and does work on his own. He can interact and take over any computer that uses Tarriel cells.”

“Key? What key?”

Avon pulled out a small rectangle of clear plas. “This key. Without it, he can not interact with humans on his own, you would need to connect him to another computer. And since he is an artificial intelligence, he can refuse to work with you.”

“Unless you have the key. Like a genie in a bottle. How frightening.” Lethro shakes his head. “I am sure that if he wasn’t with you, he’d subvert some human to do his will.”

Avon raised one eyebrow. “You scare easily.”

“No, I just have an excellent imagination.”

Vila looked at them for a while and then just sat back to wait out the flight and docking.

 

//||\\\

 

Four days later

 

Vila leaned back in his seat, his copy of Gorin Nosho. Muttering under his breath as he read and reread a passage. He paused to look up and around. Avon wasn’t on the bridge. No was Dayna, she would have understood this real easy. Tarrant had gone off to do something. No one was there except him, Orac who was flickering away near the viewscreen, and Lethro who was typing away at something.

Lethro sighed and pushed back from the console. “Oh Vila, sorry I was wrapped up in doing a report.”

“Nah, it’s okay.”

“Alright, something you want to ask me?’

“N-yeah. Tell me something about yourself.”

“Well, you know my name. I am 36 standard years old. I’ve never been to Earth and I work for the Resistance. My favorite color is red and I’m single!”

Vila laughed, “No, really. Like how do you read people?”

“Okay, ummmm that’s a unique genetic factor. My great great grandfather was an Auron. That makes me one-sixteenth Auron. I could never find much information but it was said that Aurons were telepaths. I don’t have telepathy. Better to say that I have empathy but really that’s not exactly right. I don’t feel your emotions as if they were mine. I guess…” Lethro frowned as he reclined in his seat. “I guess you can say it’s more telempathy. I read your emotions, not your thoughts. I can’t _feel_ your emotions but I can tell you are feeling them. Does that explain anything?”

“Not really, I mean is it like you look at me and you can read ‘angry’ all over my face?”

Lethro shook his head, “No, nothing so easy. I have to concentrate to do it and if I concentrate too hard, I get brain strain, just like eye strain. It’s like I focus on you and in my head it’s like a scroll unwinds with all your emotions on it. Sometimes I can see colors on you that match your emotions. Better yet, it’s like readouts, like for an engine. Label each readout as Anger, Embarrassment, Frustration and so forth.

“Now imagine I’m talking to you and focusing on you, each readout tells me on a scale of 1 to 100% what emotions you are feeling. Say you are 2% embarrassed, 33% frustrated. You don’t feel all emotions all the time, right? And during the day you can vary from one to another, so those level will go up and down. Now if I’m focusing on you, I’m reading these levels, okay? As I talk to you, even if you don’t react, your emotions do and so I then know what questions to ask.”

Vila stared at him, eyes wide. “Then it’s a good thing that you work with the Resistance.”

“Yes, of course if the Federation knew I existed, I shudder to think what they would do to me.”

“Yea. You know we had Auron with us about two years ago. Her name was Cally. She was a rather lovely girl. Shee saved my life once.”

“Really? So did you ever meet her family? Other Aurons?”

“Yeah, sort of. Cally was a clone. All Aurons are. They’re born in clone batches of up to fifteen at a time. Zelda, Cally’s sister called us to Auron for help. Servalan was on Auron, there was a plague and she had the only cure. Much like this mission to Tara. Anyways, to show their gratitude, Servalan wanted them to do a favor of her. She wanted them to make her a clone army. Clones of her and several of her trusted commanders. Ever since the Clonemasters were exterminated, apparently she didn’t have anyone she could trust.

“Anyways, some of the Aurons didn’t want to do this but the Council who runs the planet said they would. Avon and Blake were down on the planet and had to hide. So Zelda lets them hide in one of the cloning centers. Servalan of course didn’t want to attack but she let the commander of her flagship convince her that the center they thought Blake and Avon were in was not the ones with her clones.”

Lethro covered his eyes as he sat up, feet thumping on the floor. “Why do I think this is going to end badly.”

Vila looked at him again, “Oh… yeah it does. She fired and felt the psychic shock of her first fifteen clones dying.”

Vila paused as Lethro let out an aggrieved sigh and started to breathe slowly. “Go on, Vila.”

“She was furious, she blamed the Aurons… even though they didn’t have to do with it. She left, taking the ‘cure’ with her. Later we discovered it was a genetically modified disease, designed to attack clones, to attack Aurons.”

Lethro groaned. “So I guess I will never see them, will I?”

“There may be some who weren’t on planet when all this mess happened.”

“Yes but they will be few and far between. One more reason to hate Servalan and the Federation.”

“Ummmm. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. We all have reasons to hate the Federation, mine just got a little bit more personal. Ummm, can you handle watch by yourself?”

“Yeah.” Vila said quietly

“Thanks.” Lethro closed his report and got up. “Really, Vila, I am not angry at you, I am upset because I always wanted more family but I’m not angry you told me I am saddened. This is a part of my family history, something my parents told me while I was growing up. That’s all. I’m sad but you have done me no wrong and you aren’t responsible for my sadness. If anything at least, since you were there, you told me more than anyone else could. It’s a blessing. Thank you, Vila.”

“Yeah.” Vila murmured and went back to his book. Lethro just shrugged and walked past, one hand brushing over Vila’s hair as he went.

 

//||\\\

 

Avon sat on his bed, looking at the pictures of his family. His husband. His child. Zethyr. Terkerra. It had been so long since he last spent time thinking of Zethyr. Twelve years. A dozen, it sounds so simple and yet it was such a long time. Thirty days a month, fifteen months a year, 450 days. Five thousand and two hundred and fifty eight days. Ten years, six months, and eight days by standard calendar. All this time, he’s been alive and only know did he know. Zethyr would forgive him. Would Terkerra?

A knock on the door and it slid open. Vila came in holding a book. Avon stared at him. “Hey. Been reading this book and talked to Lethro.”

Avon waited a minute then sighed, “You talked to him about the book, is that what you came here for?”

Vila moved to sit down in a chair opposite from the bed. “No, not about the book. Besides you are supposed to be helping me with the book. No, I asked him about himself. He’s like one-twentieth Auron and that’s how he can read people. Said it’s not telepathy and it’s not empathy. It’s like reading emotional dials.”

Avon sat up, turning to face Vila, “Really?”

“Yeah. So I told him about Cally and about what happened to the Aurons. He was really upset, said he wanted to know more about them.”

“I see.”

“This is something you wanted to know, right?”

“Yes, Vila it is. So tell me, how far are you in Go Rin No Sho?”

“Hmmm, I finished most of Earth. I’m on ‘advantages of weapons’. Though I did read the notes on each scroll. Why?”

“What’s your question?”

“Huh, oh.” Vila grinned, “This guy, he was some sort of weapons expert right? I get that but he talks of…”

 

//||\\\

 

A chime sounded through the ship’s intercom. Avon looked up from where he was following Vila’s finger as he read. Vila stopped reading and let himself fall backwards onto the bed.

“Get up. It’s time to eat.”

“Can’t we eat here.”

“No.”

“But-”

“No.” Avon repeated as he turned and left the room.

Vila huffed and sat up, laying the book on a table in the room, he followed Avon out the door. He caught up with his friend and continued to chatter until they reached the Officer’s Mess. Everyone was there except Tarrant and Soolin. Coll looked up at them as they entered, smiling a bit.

“Hey, we have Switharan Beast with greens tonight. We should be at Tara in approximately ten hours. Enjoy.”

Coll sat down and turned towards Dayna, “So you are Hal Mellanby’s daughter? How is he?”

“Dead.”

“Oh… sorry.”

“He died well, Servalan killed him after the Interstellar War. He was a good father.”

Coll nodded, “Good fathers are the best kind of fathers. My dad knew your father, just for three days but I’ll let him know about yours.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, he was a stop on the Resistance Star Road. He helped your father escape with you after Earth and Federation forces forced your father to flee.”

“I’ve never heard of it. He really didn’t talk to me about his escape, said it was after my mother was killed that he decided to escape.”

“Yeah, they claimed that your mother was the victim of a crime but the Resistance didn’t think so. They found out that your mother wanted to disappear with you and they thought that would keep your father from doing his work, so they killed her. And babies, small children are so easy to kill and claim it was an accident or crib death or things like that. So easy for them to control him via you. So they helped him escape. He didn’t trust the Resistance so he didn’t tell them where he was going. He wanted to raise you without any interference. Looks like he did.”

Dayna blushed and lowered her eyes. “Yes, he did.”

 

//||\\\

 

Blake watched Coll and Dayna talk before turning to Lethro. “You seem quiet, today.”

“Vila told me what happened to the Aurons. It shattered a dream of my family.”

Avon watched silently. “A dream?”

“Yes, Avon, a dream. I’m sure Vila already told you that I am one-sixteenth Auron. We had hopes to find family on Auron. We want to know why the man never came back, why he left my great great grandmother pregnant. Why we have these powers and did we handle them properly?”

Blake placed his fork down and wiped his mouth, “We? Us?”

“You don’t think that I am the only one with this power. My family has it. And we’re talking everyone descend from Adrian. He was the child of the Auron. He had six children. One of them did not have kids but the other five all told had another seventeen, and those seventeen had thirty nine and I’m one of those thirty nine. Of the sixty three descendants, fifty eight of us still live. And my town only has four hundred and ninety odd people.” Lethro explained.

Vila stared at him. “A whole family of readers?!”

“No, Vila not all of us are readers. I’m not a telepath as I explained to you, not only that but it’s difficult to do what we do. Brain strain as I said. It takes focus to do what I do. But I don’t always rely on it. I don’t want to burn myself out and there are other gifts that other members of my family have.

“In fact, premonitions is a recurring talent. My aunt told me once when I was trying to decide what to study at university to take Psychology. She said it would be to my benefit once I chose my career. I can’t help but think that it does.”

Dayna leaned forward, “So you have a degree in Pyschology?”

“No, a double doctorate. Social Psychology and Sociology with a minor in Pyschology.”

Vila looked at him, “Aren’t they the same?”

“No, social psychology is the study of how people, their thoughts and feelings are affected by society around them. Sociology on the other hand is the study of society. So I studied how groups of people act and how people react due to groups of people. Meanwhile psychology is the study of people, so I got to cover it from all sides.”

Dayna shook her head. “You would be the perfect interrogator. Able to manipulate them while reading their emotions.”

“Why do you think my family lives in fear of being discovered? Lethro is my name but it is not the name on my birth certificate. My family has names for use by the universe, a personal name, and a Federation name. Lethro is my universe name. My personal name is spoken only by family.” Lethro smiled sadly. “It’s how we must live unless we want to be tortured for being born as we are.”

Blake cleared his throat. “Well now we know your reason to fight against the Federation. Coll, were you able to get a response?”

Coll nodded. “They are headed to Allimi. It’ll take us about a month to reach it, twenty one days if don’t stop for anything.”

“Then we don’t stop after Tara.” Blake suggested.

“Why are you all so fired up about reaching Sector Two?”

Coll stared at Avon, “Because humans like happy endings. You’ve been apart from him for nearly twelve years. You’ve never met your daughter. Fixing both of those is a good thing, Avon. He’s been so lonely, unlike you but that’s up to him to forgive.”

Avon’s eyes snapped to the other man, “Oh?”

“Yes, while he’s been raising your child and having a cold bed, you obviously attract them with those ahem dashing good looks.”

“And you have a problem with that?” Avon asked, his voice dropping the temperature.

“Did I say that? Even if you did kill her.”

Avon’s eyes scanned the group seated at the table. Of them all only Lethro stared back at him.

“He asked for your file. You are aware that you have a file. I gave it to him. If you didn’t want him to know about Anna Grant then you should never have mentioned her on Gauda Prime.”

Avon nodded once before turning back to Coll, his lips twisting, “And this is why you decided to shadow me? Afraid I was going to seduce someone else? Blake perhaps? Or Vila?”

“No. While I think Blake wouldn’t mind I don’t fear that. I’m just trying to understand why he would bother to forgive you.”

“Then maybe you should tell him not to.”

“I’m thinking about it.”

 

//||\\\

 

A chime disturbed the tension of the room as Blake lifted his communicator to his mouth. “Blake.”

“Tarrant, Avon isn’t answering but we are now in communications range of the planet Tara. I was wondering who was planning to talk to them?”

“Avon is a bit busy right now. I’m on my way.” Blake stared at the two men before picking up his tray and moving to place it in the cleaner.

Lethro stood up, “Mind if I go with you? The emotions… are brutal at the moment.”

Blake smiled wryly, “Isn’t it? Sure thing. Anyone else?”

Dayna got up and placed her tray in the cleaner and joined them as they left. As she left, she looked over her shoulder, “Vila?”

He just waved her off and kept watch. Shrugging she left him to make sure that Coll made it out in one piece.

Vila waited a few more minutes before he opened his mouth, “I wonder what Zethyr would think of you acting like this?”

“He’d understand.” Coll replied as Avon sneered.

“Really, and what reason would you tell him as to why you did this?”

“He’s my friend.”

Vila grinned, “Ah, but is that right? I think he thinks you’re his friend but what is he to you?”

“More to the point, what do you think he could be to you?” Avon asked lowly, “Do you really think that he would even consider you?”

Coll flinched but refused to drop his eyes. “He… is… my… friend.”

Vila snorted, “Yeah but you want him to be more. Considering that he was once and probably still in love with Avon then you don’t have a chance. So what is it? His suffering heart that you want to heal with your love. To play happy families with him and their kid? Do you really think you could handle that? Do you think Avon would let you? Do you think that you could undertake the huge responsibility of being Zethyr’s focus?”

Vila was standing next to him, whispering these words. “Avon told us that Zethyr has a weakness in that he wants to be weak, could you be that strong for him? Really? Would you have a strength to match up with him? Is that what you think? Then tell me, how could you when you can’t even stare Avon down.”

Coll snapped his eyes back to Avon who had not seem to have moved on micrometer. He had not even realized that he had taken his eyes off the dark man. Yet a silver flash caught his eye and he realized that Avon must have moved because there was a gun pointing at him. A sharp pain in his side made him realize that Vila had the tip of a knife digging in his side. Somehow the two of them had managed to draw weapons on him without him even realizing it. Looking back up, he saw Avon’s clenched smile and lowered his head.

Vila stepped back and nodded to Avon. Quietly the two left and headed for the bridge.

 

//||\\\

 

Blake shook his head. “And I disagree, that would be a bad move.”

“Then explain why it would be such a bad move, Blake?” Lethro asked gently as he crossed his legs and leaned back.

“We want the people of Tara to join the Resistance or at least not join the Federation. These meds should be the gift of the Resistance to sweeten the planet towards the Resistance.”

“I get that but by making you the face of the Resistance we give it a personal touch.”

Avon shook his head. “No, because Blake is too large a target. If they realize that Roj Blake has come to their world they will suspect that either he is trying to use Tara as a new base of operations, is on the run and wants to hide out, or that the Resistance is trying to overawe them.”

“Okay, but I can’t put my face on that screen. I’m a trouble shooter, part of my job is to be… discreet. If too many people knew who I was I wouldn’t be able to do my job the way I know how to do my job. So, someone is going to have to be the face of the Resistance. Coll?”

Vila shook his head, “Nah, he’s a bit busy right now. Avon?”

“Too obvious.”

“Dayna?”

Lethro shook his head again. “No, she’s way too obvious. Most people don’t stay as pure as her off Earth. Sorry, no offense. Your skin color is lovely, and you are a beauty but your face and skin actually make you stand out. There are very few planets that were settled by one ethnicity and even now most of those are very mixed. You would definitely stand out and that’s not exactly what we want either. Sorry.”

Dayna flushed and smiled.

Avon glanced at him, “Tarrant doesn’t know how to behave. Not to mention his diplomacy skills are considerably lacking.”

Tarrant glared at the Avon before turning back to his console.

Lethro sighed, “Then that leaves Soolin.”

Avon shook his head. “No, that leaves Vila and Soolin. Either will do. But of the two, I suggest Vila. He’s more forgettable.”

“That’s nice of you!” Vila huffed.

Avon stared at him, “You know you do it on purpose. It’s how you managed to be a thief for so long, and somewhat successful.”

Vila chuckled, “That’s true.”

“Plus I will be monitoring and making sure he says the correct things.”

Lethro nodded, “Actually, Avon makes a valid point. He can be the face of the Resistance without becoming the Resistance in person. So Vila, want to do the negotiations?”

Vila looked around, “Sure thing.”

Blake clapped Vila on the shoulder. “Good. Now let’s go over what we can offer.”

 

//||\\\

 

“Good, glad to be of service to you, Minister. We’re about,” Vila looked down at his display again, “six hours out. You said that your space station can handle the analysis of the sample, correct?”

“Yes. We’ll let them know to expect you. And thank you, Argentum. Tara out.”

Vila smiled as the image disappeared and dropped into the seat behind him. “Glad that’s over.”

Avon smiled slightly, “You did well.”

“Thanks. So if we have about six hours, we have time to sleep right?”

Blake chuckled. “Yeah, you can take a nap for the next four hours. Soolin, how much Simasten do we have?”

Soolin smiled, pushing her blond braid back over her shoulder. “That’s the good news. The medication is packaged in prefilled applicators. Twenty five doses per applicator. This ship has in its med bay two hundred applicators, so that’s five thousand doses. We brought another twenty cases from _Scorpio_ , each case has one hundred applicators which is another five _hundred_ thousand doses. And apparently this ship was on a supply run. There are foodstuffs, clothing, medications, and media in the cargo hold. Including another ten pallets of Simasten.”

“Pallets?” Blake asked, eyes large as he added up numbers. “How many on a pallet?”

Soolin grinned. “A lot, the applicator is small. The cases are maybe one foot by one foot by one foot. A standard pallet is 48 inches by 48 inches, and pallets are stacked eight boxes high. That means 128 cases per pallet.”

Avon turned his head slowly to face her, “Are you tell me that we have more than three million doses of Simasten?”

“Yes, give or take a few if the open applicators are low.” Soolin’s grin seemed infectious.”

Blake turned to Lethro, “How many people did she say was affected?”

“Less than two million, they have good quarantine procedures.” Vila replied.

“Then we have more than enough!” Blake eyes glowed with fervor.

Lethro shook his head. “One dose of Simsten won’t cure them but it will provide relief for those who need it most. There will be more than enough for testing.”

“Then, everyone who wants to rest, go take a nap. Tarrant, I’ll take over for now, you can eat and rest until we reach Tara.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remeber my saying that it's seat of the pants writing. Well I do have a general outline. Basically it is as follows:
> 
> Zethyr hates the Federation because they killed his husband.  
> Avon's not dead.  
> Oops... change of plans!
> 
> So how we are getting there is in no way planned. I mention this because 1) the solution to the change of plan is something Lethro mentioned as the reason the Resistance exists and 2) somehow... Del Tarrant is showing his softer side in private and ... screwing up my PLANS!!!!! DAMN DEL!

Soolin checked the last tether on the pallet before standing up. Three million doses of Simasten were loaded and ready to head off to _Moytura Space Platform_. Moving out of the hold, she locked the cargo door and moved to take the co-pilot’s seat. As she walked through the passenger section, she smiled at Vila who was already half asleep and leaning against Avon, who was glaring at the dark hair man from time to time while working on a handheld. Roj was looking at them with laughter in his eyes while Coll did his best to look anywhere but at the two of them. Lethro had decided to stay on board the ship so that he could rest, while Tarrant got to go with them.

The flight was uneventful and less than twenty minutes later they were docking at the space station. With a grunt, Avon pushed Vila until he slipped out of his seat.

“Wipe the drool from your mouth and get ready to greet the administators of this station.” Avon remarked coolly.

Roj sighed and moved to give Vila a hand up. “Avon, if you are going to be cranky, maybe we should leave you in the shuttle to take a little nappie.”

Tarrant shook his head and sighed. He turned toward Soolin who was coming from the control module. “I do that and I get a death threat, Avon does that and he get told to take a nap.”

Vila, standing now, turned around with an angry glare. “Well there’s a difference between you and Avon or Blake?”

Tarrant stood up straighter, “And what’s that?”

“While you all might be Alphas, Roj likes me and Avon is my friend.”

“He tried to kill you?! Or have you forgotten? Were you so stupid as to forgive him because he threw an apology your way?”

Vila looked at Roj and Avon. Seeing his friends ready to back him up, his chest puffed up and his head lifted up. “Yeah, he did try to kill me, so he’s bad at being a good friend but guess what? He’s still my friend. He doesn’t need to apologize. I mean, he should but regular rules don’t apply to Avon. And I accept him for all his flaws. He’s my friend, which is something you’ll never be. Just because you’re an Alpha doesn’t make you desirable, for friendship or anything else.”

One side of Avon’s mouth curled in a smirk as he picked up his handheld and gestured for Vila to precede them. Roj fell in beside him and turned towards his fellow Alpha.

“He’s wrong about one thing, Avon?”

“Oh?”

“You do need to apologize.”

Vila grinned, “Not really, Blake. Avon wasn’t thinking straight. You remember when you said the stress gets to him? Well, think about it. If he was thinking properly then he would have realized that once we stripped the craft and everything was out, even if you added our weights it was still too heavy. He didn’t do his thinking, he let Orac think for him. That’s not normal Avon.”

Blake nodded. “Still, he should apologize for just believing Orac. Avon knows better. Orac always manages to twist things.”

Avon’s eyes flickered between the two of them, lips tightening.

Vila stopped as a group of five people headed towards them. Behind him, he could hear the others bringing up the pallets. Time to put on an act.

 

//||\\\

 

Nash picked up the applicator and stared at the small container. Twenty five doses. At five doses, he could save five lives. Yet he was supposed to use this sample, this life restoring cure to manufacture more. Always before the Federation refused to let even a single vial out from under their grasp.

“Nash…”

“Sorry, sir.”

“I understand but Nash, they have over three and half million doses. And if we break this, then we can produce it ourselves.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Not only that but if we do crack this, we’re going to publish the formula so everyone can have it and not just the Federation.”

“Okay, sir.” Nash turned back to his sample. At least this would be one time the Federation couldn’t blackmail them.

“Oh and Nash, I heard something else. They hit a Federation ship that was on the way to this system but not to Tara. They were delivering all these doses to Eire.”

In this way was one more rebel born.

 

//||\\\

 

Two days later  
On board the _Sovereignty_

 

Avon frowned as he ran the analyzer again. Frowning, he opened a channel to the space station. “Alie, has the speed increased?”

A low voice came back through with a slight accent, “Oh aye, it suddenly jumped by another 23%. What did you do?”

“I hooked our onboard computer,” Orac’s lights flashed irritatedly, “to a link. I might shut down more sections to divert more power to the link.”

“Thank you kindly, lad. This will help us immednsely.”

“Think nothing of it. Avon out.”

Avon cut the audio link.

“On board computer?!”

“Orac, they don’t know you are here and they can’t know either. If you help them then we can get out of here sooner.” Avon stood up and strode from the control room.

Dayna jumped back as Avon passed by her without seeing her. As she entered the control room for her shift, she greeted Orac.

“Dayna, perhaps you can explain the rudeness of Avon.”

Dayna frowned, “I don’t think it is so much rudeness as impatience. After we leave here, we need to do our best to get the planet Allimi. I don’t know if your key was in when we was talking about it but Avon’s married. He thought his husband dead and now knows where he’ll be. He’s in a rush to get there. It’s an emotional human thing.”

Orac’s lights flickered rapidly. “If time is of the essence, why does he not modify the engines with the Plaxton modifications?”

“Can the _Sovereignty_ be modified with the Plaxton modifications?”

“I would not suggest it if it could not be done.”

“Can it be done with what we or the space station have on board?”

“Calculating…. Yes.”

“I’ll be right back.” Dayna got up, “While I’m gone maybe you can draw up what we need and what we need to do?”

“Very well.”

Dayna left and took off for Avon’s room. A few minutes later, she pressed the admittance button. When there was no answer, she pressed it again. And again. And again.

The door slid open to show Avon dressed only in space black sleep pants with a glare on his face. “Dayna.”

“Orac, sorry to wake you, but Orac asked me why we did not applay the Plaxton modifications to the drive.”

Avon stared at her before his eyes widened and he turned from her. Moving to his desk, he picked up his handheld and brought up the engine schematics. “Yes… it would take a few days but we’d more than make up the time with the new drive. If we can…”

Dayna chuckled. “Go back to bed, Orac is already compiling a parts list from what Moytura has in stores.”

Avon glared at her.

“Well, we want you well rested when you install these mods. Otherwise we won’t reach Allimi. But at least you know that we… won’t be wasting time.” Dayana reached forward and took the handheld from him and placed it on the des,

Avon nodded jerkily.

“Pleasant dreams, Avon.” Dayna turned and left the room, a little happier than before.

 

//||\\\

 

Blake read over the list and frowned. It was quite a bit of expensive stuff. Placing a smile on his face, he looked up as Administrator Robin entered. Blake stood, bowed his head and waited for the Administrator to sit.

“Well, I received your message.”

“Thank you for coming. Our resident genius has decided to do a bit of experimenting on our engine and he’s given me a list of parts he needs. Some of them are quite expensive and I am wondering if perhaps we can come up with a trade.” Blake grinned.

“I would be pleased to do so, Gareth. May I see the list?”

Roj handed over the tablet. “I assure you that we will wait until we are out-system before we test these modifications. You are already dealing with a plague, you don’t need to deal with an explosion in the worst case.”

Robin grinned, brown braids dangling, “Thank you. That is considerate of you.”

Blake sat in silence while Robin read through the list. “This is based off Plaxton’s work?”

Blake shrugged, “I wouldn’t know. I’m not the engineer. Actually, we don’t have one. We have a genius who can handle any computer system and he can rebuild most things.”

Robin nodded. “Well that is a large ship for nine of you? As for an enginner, I might have a candidate for you. They desperately want to get off planet. She was… she had a large family. Several siblings, two husbands, and five children. Unfortunately, as you may know this plague strikes suddenly. It doesn’t kill but some of its first symptoms are shaking and passing out, however there is maybe two in every ten thousand who do get ill it does kills immediately. It struck Captain Ronnie Blair in such a way. He crashed his liner on their homestead. She was off in town, getting supplies for breakfast. Her entire family was destroyed. It was a special occasion, a reunion.”

Blake eyes widened.

“She’s been begging to get off planet, and since we have found a test that detects the presence of the plague, we brought her up here and placed her in quarantine. After two weeks of not showing symptoms, so she was allowed on board. I understand that you will want to vet her and I’m sure she will understand the only thing I ask is if she ever wants to come home or leave your crew, you allow it.”

Blake nodded, “Of course we will. And yes, we have someone to vet new people.”

“Good, as for this list. Yes, we can provide this for you. And we will, whether you take Aline or not. You have saved this world, you could ask us for ten times what is this is worth and we wouldn’t bat and eye. As it is, we were wondering if we could do anything for you.”

Blake’s eyes looked over the Administrator. “Thank you. I do think this is it but if we do need anything, I will ask.”

“Thank you. These materials should be delivered within the next twenty eight hours.” Robin stood up. “May I keep the tablet for now?”

Blake nodded and watched as Robin left. He needed to talk to Lethro.

 

//||\\\

 

Lethro watched as Tarrant stood watch, his back straight and stiff. His uniform and wasn’t that a turn up, he actually wore a uniform. Whatever was bothering him was getting worse and worse. Vila walked in with a tray, moving quietly, he left cups at Avon’s side and Soolin’s before tentatively approaching Tarrant and leaving the cup just within reach of the other man. Slumped as he was in his chair, he could watch the drama from under hooded eyes. It was shocking that when Vila approached absolute disgust and distaste. Eyes flickering around the room, he noticed that Avon was looking at the two of them with a sidelong glance. Tarrant stiffened as if he was aware of Avon’s glare.

Making a decision, Lethro got up and excused himself before leaving. He needed to talk to Blake. Blake should be back from the trade mission below. Walking to Blake’s cabin, he pressed the admittance button and waited. A few seconds later the door opened.

“Lethro, just the person I need to see. Administrator Robin seems to have found us an engineer. I was hoping that you could talk to her.”

“I would be pleased to, Blake, that is after all part of my job.” Lethro replied softly, “However another part of my job to find out what the points of friction are and what problems they might cause. Right now the one I’m concerned with Del Tarrant.”

Blake sat there looking guileless.

“You do realize that I read your emotions, not your face. I know that you know what is going on. I am asking you to tell me what you see.”

“You are aware that Avon and myself are Alphas, correct?”

“Yes.”

“So is Tarrant, but not the same quality of Alpha as us. We are class A, he’s a Class C. You do know about the caste system of Earth and most Federated planets.”

“Considering that I was born and raised on one, yes but in our town we never applied it. It’s hard to do so when you are related to them.”

“True, but on Earth people were locked into the domes and the regimented society within, including the Caste system. Alphas, Betas, Delta, Gammas, and Epsilons. Each level has it’s own genetic peculiarities.

“Alphas are supposed to be the top quality, we are divided into give Classes, just as there are five Casts. Class A Alpha is the top while Class E Alphas are borderline. If they were less worthy, they would be Betas and we are trained since birth in our respective Castes. All Alphas should look down on lower classes and Betas should look down on Deltas, Gammas, and definitively Epsilons and so forth.

“However, Avon who is a Class A Alpha and myself who is as well prefer the company of Vila who is a Delta rather than Del Tarrant who is also an Alpha, even if he is a Class B. However because of our training, he could never express anger at us. Only those lower than him.”

“And Vila is lower than him.”

Blake nodded, “Exactly but what really gets him is that Avon _likes_ Vila. If Avon was simply having sex with Vila to relieve tensions, Tarrant wouldn’t be so hard on Vila because according to dictates, Vila doesn’t have a choice. But Avon’s not doing that. He’s making a friend of Vila. He’s educating Vila. He’s treating Vila like he’s an Alpha student. That offends Tarrant because how dare Vila be so…”

“Uppity. I see. And when Tarrant tries to reinforce his dominance over Vila, what happens?”

“Vila will try to run away or submit except the last time it happened, Avon caught Tarrant and threatened to kill him if he didn’t stop bullying Vila.”

“Because Vila’s his.” Lethro steepled his fingers in front of his face. “So Tarrant is pissed because Vila is Avon’s pet but won’t stay like a pet. Your class system is a fucked up mess. Worse, because Vila doesn’t remain in the place that ‘pet’ is designated, Tarrant reacts by becoming more and more hidebound and conservative.

Blake just stared at him.

“If we and by we, I mean you and I, don’t do something soon, he will feel he has no choice but to destroy Vila. Whether by humiliation, rape, or murder; he will feel he has no choice. If you could see the depth of derision he has. It is poisoning him, circling over and over in his mind. Tell me Blake, what is your role in this competition for Avon’s affection?”

“None. I know that Avon has very undemonstrative affection and I have my share of it. He needs me. Just as I need him and not in a lover sort of way. It’s a soul mate type of thing. To be me, I need him. He is my practical side. I’m his emotive side. Together we are unparalleled, without each other we are lopsided.”

“Okay, you know it might be as simple as you taking an interest in Del Tarrant. He’s young, very young emotionally. Instead of him pursuing Avon’s attention, give him yours.”

Blake tilted his head. “If he would accept them. He might still believe the charges against me.”

“We’ll see. Why don’t you call him and we can talk.”

Blake lifted the communicator to his wrist and asked Tarrant to join him in his quarters. Smiling, he turned back to Lethro and just watched him.

“Such curiosity.”

“Such placidity.”

“It is necessary, all gifts have two sides. A side of benefits and a side of deficits.” Lethro said quietly. The admittance chime rang and Blake allowed Tarrant in. He came in with straight back and eyes forward. His walk was slightly checked by the sight of Lethro seated in the chair in front of Blake’s desk.

“Sir?”

Blake looked at him and smiled slightly. “You know you don’t have to call me that, Tarrant.”

“Del, may I call you Del?” Lethro asked gently.

“Yes, sir.”

“Not sir, Lethro, or Let if you prefer. Del. You know my talent right? Well, part of my job with this talent is to try to solve personnel problems, conflicts and such. Why do you hate Vila so?”

“I do not hate Vila.”

“You despise him, when he gets near you, your whole aura and attitude changes.” Lethro said softly, eyes flickering over Del Tarrant’s face. “Do you even realize that Vila is petrified of you? He avoids being alone with you.”

Tarrant stared back flatly. “I do not hate Restal.”

“So you do know his last name, but everyone calls him Vila. You are no longer in the Federation forces, you treat Vila like you would a soldier that you despise but can not accuse of anything.”

“Sir…”

“Avon watches you.” Blake interrupted. “He watches you whenever you are around Vila. Why?

Lethro watched as Blake talked to Tarrant, saw the flickers in his face and tightening of his jaws. “And you don’t realize how much you resent and hate him. Oh, Del.”

Blake nodded, “I don’t like how Avon watches you, Del.”

Tarrant jerked back.

“For now, you will continue to be the primary pilot of Sovereignty. However, I will be training you. Also, if Lethro is right, then you don’t know how much you hate Vila. Part of it could be because he’s a Delta but unless I have missed anything, Vila himself never did anything to you. So whatever is wrong, I insist that you have therapy to deal with it. How can I trust you with things when you are hiding things from yourself?”

Tarrant nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Blake, his name is Blake.”

Blake smiled and turned to face Lethro, “He can call me Roj.”

Tarrant flushed, “Thank you… Roj.”

“Good. Why don’t you and Lethro set up a schedule and we’ll work around it?”

Lethro nodded and stood up, resting one hand on Tarrant’s elbow, “We can have our first session now and set up the schedule later.”

Tarrant nodded dazedly.

 

//||\\\

 

Lethro sighed and placed his head down on his knees. He didn’t know how much longer he could stand this. He had to get some down time, some escape from these… these… mental cases! Growling, he stood up and moved to prepare dinner. It was his turn and Tarrant had helped greatly. Plus the informal setting had the young man opening up quickly. Such misplaced passion, wasn’t puberty supposed to happen when they were in their teens? Tarrant had to be late twenties at least. His thoughts whirled as he set the places and laid out the dishes. Avon hated the green so they would go on the other side of Vila… who would be seated next to Avon and of course be cases for just one more iota of resentment by Tarrant. Bake however was going to show up for dinner, so he could seat Tarrant next to his new mentor which would be good. But then, he’d have to move Soolin, she wasn’t as… soothing as Dayna but….

Sighing, he placed his hands against the table and let a growl build up in him before stepping back. A blur of black on his right, had him spinning around, eyes wide.

“Avon.”

“So you do have a temper.”

“Everyone does. For tonight Avon, do me a favor and don’t watch Tarrant. I’m working on his Vila problem.”

Avon nodded and moved down the table to sit. Soon enough the others came in and Lethro took his seat on the other side of Tarrant who was sandwiched between Blake and himself.

Avon looked up. “So concerning tempers, Lethro.”

“What about them, everyone has them Avon. We may not all be as obcious about them but everyone has them.”

“Except it seems for you.”

Vila frowned, “True, you always seem so… nice.”

“Not exactly, more like inoffensive. He’s done some unkind things but never offensively.” Avon pointed out.

“And yet, I too have a temper. I just can’t give into it like the rest of you have. Tarrant pouts. Blake simmers in self-indulging self-pity. Soolin plots evil deeds to be done to people. Dayna dives into her weapon designing. Avon cuts people with his razor tongue. Vila steals and gloats over his treasures. Coll simmers in unrequited love like a teenager. And of course then there’s me. I’m a telempath who can’t get any damn privacy on this raggedy bucket of bolts. The only one I don’t have to duck is Orac and none of you trust me with him alone. So yes, I have a temper but unlike all of you, I can not indulge it.

“You know my gift, well here’s the curse. If I lose control I’d try to dump my emotions in your brain. Your brains can’t handle that. Telepathy yes, but empathy, telempathy, no it can’t. It’s like exercising a muscle that you’ve never used before, it would cripple you because this muscle is in your brain. It would cripple or kill you. So I can’t, let me repeat that CAN NOT lose control or I risk killing all of you. So yes, if it seems that I don’t have a temper it is because I can not afford to have one. Not if we don’t want this to be a ghost ship.” Lethro stated implacably. “Do me a favor and stop with the self-destructive behaviors, okay?”

The others stared at him while he ate slowly. Avon in particular stared at him.

“I can feel you staring at me, Kerr Avon. I suggest you finish your food before I dump your plate.”

Avon didn’t reply but started eating

Soon, Lethro got up and went back to his room.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DEL!!!!
> 
> I refuse, I know, I know, I didn't but Tarrant/Blake in the pairings because they weren't supposed to be! It was supposed to be a mentor/child relationship. Now it's an asexual romantic sharing of emotions. Blake.... ::pulls out bat:: was supposed to give Tarrant direction, support, affection and set him up as a new Resistance cell leader sometimes around chapter 10! If I made it that far! Now it looks like seduction. Don't worry, out of quarters, he'll still be brash, arrogant, pushing, and decisive.
> 
> ::swings bat at Del Muse:: And until he sneaks it in, I am not moving him to the aide's cabin in Blake's quarters. I refuse!

Vila looked around at the rest of the crew. “If that’s him under control, I wonder how he’d be if he was really upset. He reminded me of you, Avon.”

Avon turned towards Vila slowly, eyes narrowing.

Vila lifted his fork to his mouth and realized exactly what he had just said and turned to Avon with a smile. “Of course you’re better at it than him.”

Vila scooted over a bit before he sighed and slumped to finish his meal.

Tarrant watched with ill concealed glee until Avon turned to him with a flat glare. Seeing this, Blake moved to cup Tarrant’s neck and pull Tarrant’s attention to himself.

“That right there. You were glad that Vila pissed off Avon, the idea of Avon taking vengeance on Vila made you happy. Just because he’s pissed at Vila doesn’t mean he’d allow you to take out your anger on Vila. Vila is his, similar to the fact that you are mine. Do you understand?”

“He can pick on Vila but no one else may.”

“Exactly, just like I allow you to call me Roj but of them all, only Avon has ever called me that and rarely at that.”

Tarrant flushed and turned back to his food. Blake squeezed his neck slightly and then went back to his dinner. “After we eat, come with me to my quarters?”

Tarrant nodded slowly.

 

//||\\\

 

Dayna entered her quarters and stopped. Over on the far wall was a table with her newest weapon. She had remembered how the engines tore apart Dr. Plaxton and wondered if she could make a weapon with a narrower beam and less power. A type of disruptor. But did they need another disruptor? Not really? But dealing with the tensions between Tarrant and Vila and throwing Avon in the mix. Yet, maybe Lethro was right, rather than accepting and dealing with her fellow crewmates she hid among these machines. At least they didn’t have emotions and fights, and… were known.

Walking over the table, she examined the not quite complete disruptor. Guns were easy, people not so much. Next time… next time Tarrant started in with Vila, she would say something.

 

//||\\\

 

Blake let Tarrant enter first and led them to then seating area. Waving Tarrant to the couch, he entered the bedroom to get the file that he had brought back from the space station and two handheld tablets. Sitting close but not too close, he turned toward Tarrant. Handing his protégé, a tablet and a stylus, he started.

“As you are aware, Avon is my second in command and he’s a good one. He, however, is not very… adept with people. You, on the other hand, do seem like you will be. Therefore I am hoping that you will accept my wish to train you as our third. What happened before with Avon going unstable can never happen again. I’ve already admitted my fault so let’s move on to preventing it from ever happening again. If for any reason, I can not be here, then you need to be.

“It will be many months if not years before you can take over for me but it’s time to be proactive not just reactive. Are you willing?”

Tarrant nodded, “Yes, Roj.”

“Thank you. Really. Now we’re going to go over the Administration on the current space station. Also, they have someone they suggest as an engineer, before you leave, I’ll give you a copy of their file. By dinner tomorrow, I want your assessment and suggestion about what do with this person.

“First and most important is Administrator Robin, who for all intents and interests, is the ruler of Tara due to being the only person of rank who controls the space station. This is the file on Robin,” Blake handed it to him. “Read it now, and we’ll discuss this person, their motivations, their desires, what we can give them and what they can give us.

“One important thing to remembers is CRIMES, which stands for the six reasons people may turn or be used. C is for Coercion. Many times people do not betray you or the Federation because they want to. If you had not been framed, would you have left. Their abuse of you is a type of coercion but it really falls under something later.

“Next is R for Recognition, this is very valuable. If a person views themselves as underappreciated or unrecognized or overlook they will often betray those they blame. Some call this Resentment.

“I is for Ideology. I personally fall under this banner. I believe deep down, in my soul, ideologically that the Federation is corrupt and abusive. Ideology is a harsh mistress. Many become fanatics. You must be careful is you are playing on someone’s ideology, it can get away from you. Long time on Earth, there were many different religions and people believed them deep down in their soul, so much so that anyone could twist these religious ideas and tell them that their ‘god’ demanded murder and they would do it. Gleefully. They would blow themselves us. Attack encampments and town. Kill those who disagreed with them. Ideology should never be used wildly.

“M is for Money and that is why most betray, they want the money. Maybe for a good reason, maybe for just plain greed. Thing is if a person is bought, there’s no guarantee that they will stay bought. Vila is a thief; he’s greedy but greedy in a way. A verifiable way, one that once we understood we knew we could trust him in other ways.”

“Is that why you trust him?” Tarrant asked quietly.

“Yes, we have spent much time together, depending on ourselves. We keep temptation out of Vila’s way and he’s absolutely trustworthy. And if we let him steal a few things from time to time, he’s happy. That’s something we can trust about him.”

Tarrant frowned and nodded.

“Next is Ego. Ego is another one that has to be handled gently. Those with too much ego are easier to handle than those without Ego. Think again of Vila, he’s not very egoistic in his day to day life but try to get him to do something when he is unsure and he will not do it. If they have too little ego, they are too afraid to take the chances needed and need constant reassurance. They are somewhat fragile. Too much ego and they believe they can out think you.

“Lastly is Sex. Avon fell into that trap with Anna Grant. You don’t have to be celibate but you have to be cautious of who you choose. If you choose someone who wants to know nothing about what you are doing, then they must never know. Ever. If it is someone who is part of the Resistance, ask yourself one question, ‘Why?’. Is it to move up in the Resistance or is it to win favor? Is this person aware than you will not favor them? As cynical as it seems, you must still ask these questions because when it comes to sex, all humans are stupid.”

Tarrant nodded as he took notes.

Roj smiled at him. “Enough for the first lesson, right now let’s just talk. Tell me a bit more about you and where you grew up. What I learn about you here will not be shared and I can tell you a bit about what I remember of my life before.”

 

//||\\\

 

Lethro pressed the chime and waited. Although he had said what he had felt it was still wrong to take his temper out on them. Much less to tell them like that. He winced especially at his tone. He knew better.

Coll opened the door, staring at him.

“What do you want?”

“To apologize. I lost my temper. I… have to admit when I get pissy I tend to act much like your least favorite person and satisfy myself with cutting people to ribbons. It’s not an attractive trait nor proper but in lieu of just going off somewhere to scream, it’s what I do. So I wanted to apologize for my manner.”

“But not what you said?” Coll asked quietly.

“No, for my manner. You are, to be a bit more polite about it, sulking. You are holding your self-pity to you like a ragged blanket. And all because of this one man. A man who by all examples can not feel the love you feel for him. So I don’t understand why you love him so much.”

Coll dropped down to the couch. “I don’t know either. You’re right though, it’s obvious when you think of it but… there’s something about him. He’s so…”

“Large? He seems unreal? Perfect? He’s always right?”

“Yeah.” Coll chuckled. “Thought you never met him?”

“I haven’t but what you are describing isn’t love. It’s respect, it’s admiration, it’s obsession and it always fails.” Lethro reached out, placing on hand on Coll’s knee. “And no, this isn’t me being mean again. It’s the way you describe him, like he’s some sort of god. You worship him and while worship is a type of love, it is not the love you claim. He’s not perfect, even Avon never claimed that Zethyr was perfect.”

“Nothing ever bothers him. He can do anything without showing how it hurts him.”

“At what sacrifice? Is it the fact he doesn’t show that things hurt him or is it that nothing actually affects him? Because if nothing bothers him it is because he has nothing to bother. Do you understand?”

Coll shook his head.

“Okay, you said that he had killed a friend because said friend had threatened to turn the Federation on his daughter. Was that man truly a friend?”

Coll frowned. “I think so. I mean after killing him, he took in the daughter to raise. She’s Terkerra’s best friend.”

Lethro leaned back, “Before or after Zethyr took her in?”

“Before, why?”

“So you are telling me that this man, who you esteem so much, murdered the father of his daughter’s best friend and felt nothing? For this you esteem him? If it did not affect him it is because he has no soul to affect. The man he killed may have been a colleague but was never Zethyr’s friend. If he had been, Zethyr would have been affected even a little.”

Coll stared at him. “Are you all right?”

“I am but how can that be something to admire? Please, explain this to me?”

“I don’t know that I can.”

“Then do this, I’m going to leave you be but I want you to think over the episodes that you think make up what your respect about Zethyr and instead of thinking how stoic and strong he is, ask yourself this: Is he showing no emotion because he feels none? That one question because quite a few sociopaths, they can kill easily because no one is real to them. This world, even themselves are not real. What is real is their focus. And I don’t mean their ability to pay attention. I’m talking about a person, an item, or animal that they think is real. Nothing else may be real but that thing is and the entire universe revolves around the real point. Avon was Zethyr’s focal point, and then it was his daughter. So what does that make you?”

 

//||\\\

 

Avon paused the crystal when the chime rang. Opening the door, he faced Lethro.

“Sorry for my comments at dinner. I realized later after I had left that I hadn’t talked to you about your mother.”

Avon nodded and stepped aside. “What about her?”

“Coll said he was returning to Zethyr because your mother had died. And I don’t know if your behavior is aberrant or not, since I didn’t know you before. Yet, I was wondering if perhaps you would like to tell me about her?”

“What is there to tell? I haven’t seen her since I was twelve and entered the Rosel School.” Avon moved to a small bar to pour drinks.

Lethro sat on a couch and took the drink Avon handed him. “She never came for your graduation or wedding?”

“We could not afford it so no, we sent vids but that’s all.” Avon sat across from him.

“But have you mourned her? It’s one thing not to be able to visit her, quite another to find out that she is dead.”

“If I mourned her it would have long since passed since I have assumed that she had long since been dead. I did not believe that Servalan would allow her to live, especially once I turned down her proposition to rule with her.”

Lethro choked on his drink, “She what?!”

“Yes, as if I was foolish enough to believe that she wouldn’t have killed me within a week.”

Lethro chuckled, then laughed. “Alright, I get that.”

Sitting back, he sipped his drink and relaxed. It wasn’t as tension free as he likes but Avon was very… controlled. It was quiet and peaceful. After about twenty minutes, he rolled his head to the side and looked at Avon.

“Thank you, here I came to counsel you and instead you have restored me.”

“About your talent, is it really that bad?”

“I call it a talent but I should call it a sense because I can never turn it off, just ignore it. You hear all sorts of things but you only listen on what you focus. My ‘talent’ is always on. I just ignore or dim when I’m not focusing. I call it a talent because unlike hearing, I had to train it so it didn’t drive me mad. Make sense?”

“Yes, actually it does.” Avon put his drink down on the table facing the couch. “So, you got degrees in psychology for self-defense?”

“Actually, I was looking into physics, especially wormholes. However my aunt suggested psychology since it would work well with my ‘talent’.” He admitted wryly, “Now I find that I enjoy my work. When I soothe and straighten out the tangled emotions of the people around me, it soothes me as well as makes me happy. My little cousin calls me ‘Herald’ like a character from her books. They have a type of Herald called a Mind-Healer. I keep telling her that I can’t get into people’s minds but I don’t think she gets it.”

“Quis ipsos custodes custodiet?”

“I don’t know.”

“Alone am I unbearable to your senses?”

“No, you are very calm and controlled. I fear when you lose control.”

“Then you are allowed in my quarters whenever you need a place of calm. As for myself, is that not your job?”

“To a mutually beneficial arrangement.” Lethro toasted before sipping his drink again.

“Not to mention it will likely piss off several people.”

Lethro choked on his drink again.

 

//||\\\

 

Avon opened bleary eyes and noticed Lethro curled up on the couch, hands tucked under arm. Getting to his feet unsteadily, he moved to the closet and got out a blanket. Covering his new ally with the blanket, he headed into his bedroom to collapse, still clothed on the bed.

 

//||\\\

 

Blake sighed softly and turned to see Del asleep, slumped against him. Del had been quiet for most of the past hour, but he didn’t think the young man had fallen asleep. _Ah well_ , Blake thought, _he’s tired and there’s no need to move. For all his arrogance and self-confidence when he sleeps, he looks younger than his twenty two years. So young, he didn’t even know what he needed, just kept moving through like the soldier he is. I don’t know if I will be any good for you, but if you wish it, I’ll allow my affection for you to show and you can give me someone to hold from time to time. Small simple pleasures but so necessary for us. I was too alone on Gauda, I had no one to talk to, to play with, to relax with. Not like I had with Avon before, not like I can with you now. I don’t do well without human connections. I think I went a bit mad just like Avon did. You don’t know it yet but you will give me just as much as I give you, Del. I promise, I’ll do my best for you._

Tarrant stirred gently and Blake just raised his hand and stroked the curls from his forehead, slowly.

“Sleep, Del.”

Tarrant murmured something and dropped deeper into sleep.”

Smiling Blake stroked Del’s hair until he too fell asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do not ask me how Brave New World got into this fic. I haven't read the book in almost three years. ::sigh:: And why isn't my tarrant muse a bit more an arrogant bitch?

Vila slouched down the hallway towards the mess hall. Oh, he should not have had all that drink last night but it was a good night. He finished the Earth book, so Avon would be happy with him, which means less grouchiness from him. And anything that made Avon less grouchy was a good thing, a great thing, a spect…

Vila stopped short as he approached the corner. Stepping from Avon’s room looking all ruffled was Lethro. Vila watched as he tried to smoothe his hair and headed off to his own quarters. Angry now, Vila moved to Avon’s quarters door. A few seconds and it slid open without sound.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

Avon turned to glare at the intruder, still half asleep.

“Do you know that Coll is looking for anything and I mean anything to tell Zethyr to poison your reunion and you go and… sleep with Lethro? How could you be so… so Episilon?” Vila rushed Avon.

Avon glared at him but Vila did not retreat.

“There is nothing to tell. Lethro fell asleep while in my quarters and I let him sleep.”

“Doesn’t look like nothing, he looks well shagged.”

Avon’s glared cooled somewhat as he realized what Vila had said. “Vila, I would never cheat on my husband. True, I have had lovers but only because I truly believed him dead.”

Vila stepped back, his breathing harsh as he listened to his friend.

“And of course, you are correct that anyone else seeing him leave, might have jumped to the same conclusion but truthfully, we just talked.”

“About what?” Vila asked softly.

Avon stared back until Vila turned away, moving toward the door.

“About him, about my mother, about my… daughter.”

Vila stopped and nodded. “Guess you need someone to talk about that to?”

“Not really, that’s what you’re for. He however needs decompression time and aside from Orac, I am the most tolerable of the crew. Perhaps next time I should call you to join us?”

Vila laughed, “Yeah right, then someone will claim you’re having a threesome.”

Avon stopped moving and closed his eyes. “Vila…”

“See you in the mess hall!” Vila scampered out the room

 

//||\\\

 

Del Tarrant fluttered his eyes as he slowly woke up. Under his cheek warm material rose and fell slowly. His mind was still fuzzy from sleep but he didn’t think he had invited anyone back to his quarters… _except I’m not in my quarters. I’m in Blake’s… Roj’s quarters, on Roj’s couch, with my head on his chest. Roj, who had spent time with me last night talking about reason and means. Roj who expected my analysis by dinner tonight. Roj who confused me, was he trying to seduce him or was he just overly affectionate? Not that there’s been any close friends since my last year in the Service. There was Rashad who was on the command track with me and with whom I could always seek warmth, even if I didn’t want sex. Was that what Roj was offering? I really can’t see Roj getting much warmth from Avon although understanding yes but not warmth. If warmth is what Roj wants from me then I am willing… anything else, well…_ Tarrant felt himself flush, _well we’d have to see._

Del tried to get out of Roj’s arms without waking him, moving slowly. Suddenly he felt the arms tighten.

“So you’re awake then? How are you feeling?”

“Thick.”

“Understandable. When’s your shift?” Roj stretched letting Tarrant go.

Del sat up and yawned widely, covering his mouth. “Midshift, s-Roj.”

Blake smiled. “Good. That gives you plenty of time to shower and change. I would offer you some clothes but mine would never fit you.”

“True. It’s okay. My quarters aren’t far from here.” Del pushed himself up because if he didn’t do it now then he wouldn’t want to do it later.

Roj nodded and let himself sink back into the cushion only to be confronted by Del’s outstretched hand, waiting for to help him up. Grinning, he took it and allowed Del to pull him up.

Del noticed that Roj was a couple inches shorter than him. Just enough to… and suddenly he flushed again. “Ummm, I’m going to go now. You don’t mind if I bring these files to the bridge do you?”

“Of course not, you can study them during watch. I’ll see you after watch and we can discuss the persons. If we make no progress with breaking Simasten in three days, we’ll have to talk to the Administrator about what we need to do. I’ll appreciate it if you would join me.”

Del smiled as he picked up his tablet and files before nodding. “Tonight then.”

After he left, Blake chuckled. Tarrant was… adorable!

 

//||\\\

 

Dayna looked around the table, Vila was smirking and Tarrant was in a strange mood. He had a tablet beside him.

“Dayna?”

She loked up as Blake called her name, “Yes?”

“I was wondering if you could switch shifts with Tarrant tomorrow. I would like him to be on midshift again.”

“Not a problem.”

Tarrant stared at Blake, a weird look in his eyes. It seemed angry but proud.”

“That’s not a problem is it, Del? Something has come up and I prefer that you have the evening free.”

“No, S-Roj.” Tarrant cocked his head to the side.

Avon looked between them and sighed. “And when were you going to tell me about this new development?”

“When you needed to know.” Blake replied distractedly.

Soolin turned to Dayna, “Why do I get the feeling that we are missing something here.”

Vila shrugged, “You are. It’s cause you’re not from Earth. This is Alpha business.”

“Which means you should keep your Delta mouth shut, Restal.” Tarrant replied lowly.

“But I don’t have to because they aren’t in the class system.” Vila replied moving fractionally closer to Avon who noticed.

“Tarrant.”

“Vila, go ahead and explain it to them while Avon, Tarrant, and I talk.”

Vila got up and moved to sit next to the two women, Lethro and Coll moved as well. “It’s simple. Alphas are raised differently than us. There’s always only one of them unless they naturally split into twins. So because they are usually only kids they don’t have the strong bonds the other classes do. Betas usually have twins to quads, and Delta’s like me can have from four to sixteen sibs in one batch. I have eight sisters, not clones but split into sixteen by some techy process. So they aren’t clones but like regular twins or so. My mother chose to have me by herself, so unlike my sisters I wasn’t raised by the city crèche. I was a twin but he died when we were young.

“Back to Alphas, they don’t have that connection so the social engineers thought it would be good for them to have what is called the Three Loves of the Alphas. Warmth, Sex, and Progeny. Warmth is just what it says, Alphas are engineered to be genius, lone geniuses who are there to lead but what’s that saying ‘It’s cold and lonely at the top’. Well that’s not healthy apparently so they put in something to help with that. Warmth. Just a human connection between people. It’s emotional, It’s someone you can let their Alpha barriers down with and just be. I remember I once broke into an Alpha house and all the children were curled up together in one big bed, they were seeking Warmth, and when they get older, they’ll form Warmth bonds with those who they trust.”

“So it’s just the emotional connection?”

“Yeah and no, it can lead to sex but sex isn’t the primary motivator. And it’s definitely romantic.”

Dayna frowned, “So I’m guessing the Sex and Progeny, aren’t?”

“No, they can be romantic too but with Progeny, who you have kids with is set by the Board. There’s no appealing that. Sex can be romantic too but it’s a physical need right? And an Alpha’s needs trumps anything. One of the reason’s I don’t mind being around Avon. As an Alpha he has the right to demand sex of anyone lower than he, like myself but he wouldn’t because that would mean his physical needs control him and he won’t do that. He’d never let a physical need beat him.”

Lethro stared at them, head on his clasped hands. “This is fascinating. I might want to do another doctorate and the psychology of Alphas looks like an interesting thesis.”

Vila rolled his eyes, “But you should know this, you’re an Alpha.”

“Actually by Federation standards, yes but I wasn’t socialized as an Alpha. Remember I don’t live on Earth but on another planet and they aren’t as strict. I like in a town in the one of the underdeveloped areas, and my whole family is based off a clan structure. So yes, genetically, I do qualify as an Alpha, socially… not one whit.” Lethro explained, “This is seriously one of the most fascinating things I’ve heard. By the by, did you know that Tarrant was jealous of you?”

“Of course, he hated that Avon would rather spend time with me than another Alpha. Why do you think I stay out of his way? I’m not stupid enough to get between two Alphas. What about you, Coll? You’ve seen this before, right?”

Coll shook his head. “The Federation rarely is interested in my planet. We don’t have the class system like you do. This is really complex, and this is your life?”

Vila shrugged. “I guess it’s true. It depends of the life you are born into.”

 

//||\\\

 

Avon faced Blake and Tarrant, lips tight. “What are you up to Blake?”

“I thought it would make sense to use Tarrant’s skills more efficiently.”

“Oh?” Avon drawled.

“Yes. He was made a Captain in the Federation Space Forces. They don’t hand those out to idiots, no matter what their social class is. The fact that he has already been to OTC is a benefit, all we have to do is a bit of review. He was obviously being watched as bright and intelligent asset. Now that he knows that the Federation is corrupt, we can either use his skills or ignore them. If we ignore them, then we lose out.”

“He was a smuggler. A gun runner.”

Blake’s hand tightened on Tarrant’s upper arm, “After he was framed by the Federation.”

Avon turned to Tarrant. “He’s brash and arrogant.”

“He’s an Alpha, it’s endemic to us.”

“His plans are idealistic and often fail.”

“Your plans haven’t been exactly superior either.”

Avon’s eyes narrowed. “And what exactly is your plan? Is he your little pet now?”

Tarrant stepped forward, checked only by Blake’s hand on his upper arm.

“Avon…”

“Fine, and do you expect any help with this project?”

“No, I don’t think we need help right now. Del and I can handle it for now but there are some thing I would like you to help him with. As I mentioned before, you have talents that I don’t and I think Del has some of them as well.”

“Oh?”

“What other reason would you two butt heads so often, well that and considering how much he respects you when you aren’t being a complete ass.” Tarrant’s head whipped around, eyes with shock, “I don’t understand why you dislike him so, he’s rather a nice young man but maybe you just can’t handle him. We know about your lack of people skills. Isn’t it a good thing that I’m back now?” Roj’s hand slid up to press against the back of Tarrant’s neck.

Avon stared at them, one side of his mouth curling. “Very well. He’s all yours. Let’s see if he’s worth the time and effort that you are willing to put into him.”

“I have no doubts about it.” Blake turned to look into Tarrant’s eyes are he stated that.

Tarrant flushed and opened his mouth to say something as the communicator band beeped. Taking a deep breath, he smiled at them before turning and lifting it to his mouth.

“Beryl.”

“Ah, Mr. Beryl, this is Administrator Robin, I was hoping to get in touch with Onyx or Argentum. I have some good news. We have cracked the chemical structure of Simasten. We can start producing it in less than two hours. We retooled approximately eighty-five percent our medical processing plants to produce this. We’re going to be able to produce approximately eight hundred and fifty thousand doses per three hour period. Give us one more day, and we’ll set aside one half of all doses for you. That’ll give you all the doses back and we’ll transmit the chemical formula.”

“Administrator, we don’t need all three million plus doses back. We brought them for your people. If we get maybe half a million doses, that would be fine. That and formula. We intend to break the Federation’s stranglehold on this medication.” Tarrant replied smoothly.

The Administrator sighed. “Thank, Mr. Beryl. You and your crew will always be welcome at Tara.”

“Thank you, Administrator. We’ll probably come down in a couple hours if that’s okay with you.”

“That would be fine.”

“Beryl, out.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Del is being a bit of twat but that's nothing new!
> 
>   
> [   
> ](http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/sunny)   
> 

Aline Moynihan stared at the walls. The Administrator had asked her to come to meet some people, said it was a favor for the people who had brought the cure. Too bad they hadn’t brought it eight planet weeks ago when it would have done her some good. Thought that was uncharitable to think. It wasn’t the poor captain’s fault. He wasn’t expecting to die at the wheel nor was it anyone’s fault. The priest claimed that the Good God had a plan and even if it hurts there is a reason behind all of this pain of living, no matter if we small humans didn’t understand it there is always a plan.

The door opened and in walked four men and the Administrator. One was a rather sever looking man in all black with silver studs. The hair on that man, blacker than the Morrigan’s wing it was but he looked crosser than an adder. Then came the two, who looked like they could be related with their curly brown hair. One was broader of shoulder and looked to be the older of the two. For all that, he’s the softer of the two, you can see it in his eyes. The other was younger and taller but still has some growing into his limbs to do. He’s not as idealistic as his friend. The last one his hair was somewhat between black and brown with honey brown eyes. His hair lay flat on his skull and he seems to be the most relaxed of the crew. The Administrator is… the Administrator.

“Administrator. Gentlemen.”

The five sat down and the Administrator took her hand. “Aline, we know you are not really happy here. The space station really doesn’t use you as often as you need to be used. That’s why I thought that maybe you would like to go off planet.”

“What if I don’t want to join the Resistance?”

Lethro leaned forward, “Then you don’t have to. Excuse me, we should have introduced ourselves. My name for now is Topaz, the young one is Beryl, the older one is Aurum, and the one in all black is Onyx. Obviously fake but for your safety not ours.”

‘Onyx’ pulled out a tablet and pushed it forward. “These are some of the modifications that we have made on our drive. They are based off Plaxton’s last work. Unfortunately she can no longer help us because she perished over a year ago. However, these modification I made myself based off what she had done previously.”

Aline stared at the diagrams, expanding some and moving them, paging through the different files. “This is amazing and so what; I travel the stars with you and baby these beauties?”

‘Aurum’ laughed, “Something like that. ‘Onyx’ is a computer genius and has been maintaining our engines along with two others but one of them is a weapons maker and the other is a mercenary, neither of them actually understand the engines. The ship we are using right now is a bit larger than normal and so we thought to have a real engineer would be a good thing.”

“I see and this is my entrance interview?”

‘Topaz’ grinned, “Something like that. Well, actually you have already passed most of the interview and I know why you are angry, I understand the regret, what I don’t get is the wistful sense you are displaying. Were you thinking of your family before we came in?”

Aline stared at him in shock. “You’re a telepath?!”

“No, just emotions but why were you so wistful?”

Aline slumped down in the seat. “If you had been just two month earlier my family, every single one of them from the elders down to those not born yet would have been alive. Then I have to remind myself of what my village priest said, ‘Even if you don’t understand it, there’s a reason behind everything.’ I hope he’s right. Otherwise my family died for nothing.”

‘Topaz’ reached out to take her other hand, “No, but you may not see the reason for many years. I’m not a man of faith but almost two thousand years ago a young girl died of a burst appendix. Her younger brother watched her die slowly. He grew up and became a farmer, but he educated his children and told them about his sister. Even named one of his children after her. Two of his children went on to educate themselves in college. One became a doctor, the other became a veterinarian. One hundred and thirty two years later, five generations later, one of the descendants was born Louis Pasteur who developed a cowpox vaccine, learned how to sterilize milk, and helped people to understand that it is germs and not evil spirits that cause illness. The young girl’s death inspired this though no one remembers her name and no one realized that it was her death that started all this.

“Is there a purpose? Perhaps but I don’t think you will ever find out anytime soon. However every death affects someone. And those effects ripple outward, never truly disappearing.”

Aline smiled slowly. “That’s a kindness that you are doing me.”

“It’s just something I learned in class. Now, like I said, you don’t have to join the Resistance but you will be hearing something of our business so if you have any particular loyalty to the Federation, we can’t have you on the ship.”

“No, no particular loyalty. In fact nothing near it. After what they tried to pull and I’ve been hearing rumors that they were shipping the drug to Eire.”

‘Beryl’ nodded. “That’s true. We found the records, but that’s what the Federation does, it creates a problem they have the solution to for the sole sake of being your savior.”

Aline’s lips tightened as the word savior passed his lips. “Well that’s one thing I shan’t be looking to the Federation for.”

“Good. Well, that’s my part of this interview done.” ‘Topaz’ leaned back. “Now if you convince the other three that you are a good risk, we’ll head back to the ship and lay it all out for Argentum. He’ll make the final decision.”

“Ms. Moynihan, as you can see, we have decided to adjust…” Avon started.

 

//||\\\

 

“Aline Moynihan.”

“She’s motivated not by recognition, nor anything else as far as I can figure.”

“True, and that’s because she’s not betraying anything. She feels no loyalty to the Federation so she can not betray them.”

“So CRIMES only apply to people when they are betraying something.” Tarrant frowned, “not very useful is it?”

“It is because it can tell you what you can use to turn someone. Let’s say we wanted to recruit her to destroy Tara, what motivation would you use?” Roj waited.

“R. Recognition/Resentment. I would try to convince her that the planetary government either released the disease or knew about it and allowed the deaths of her family to happen. That they would not only know about it but know how to test for it and the cure but didn’t because they wanted to manipulate the economy.”

Roj smiled. “Very good, Del. What about the Administrator?”

“Definitely Ideology. If you can convince the Administrator that it is in the best interest of the planet, they’ll destroy everyone on the planet.”

“Lethro.”

Del frowned, “Now him, it would be hard because he can tell if I’m bullshitting him. I’d have to convince someone else and send them in to convince him. Even then if anyone is around who doesn’t buy it, he’ll pick up and because he’s curious he’d find out. For him, I’d say Coercion or Sex. And I’m not sure about the Sex.”

“Good thought. Del Tarrant?”

Del froze, eyes closing halfway. “For him, probably Ideology, Money or Sex. If you can convince him that there is something to it? Not only that but he wants there to be a rewards, so money is a definite plus. Then there is Sex, if he finds the right person to fulfill all his needs then he’ll burn the sky for them. But finding the right person, there’s the trick.”

“I see, so would Sex be my best bet at convincing him?”

“Are you offering or asking?”

“I’m not sure, just reading some… hints so to speak.”

“Ah, hints, well… if you need some extra time to decode them, I’m sure he will wait, old man.”

Blake stood up and held out his hand to Del, “Perhaps but I tend to go with my instincts, Del.”

Del took his hand and allowed Blake to pull him to a stand, looking down at him, a smile curled his lips. “Roj, let’s s—”

The comm bands beeped. “Blake, everyone except you and Tarrant are on the bridge.”

“Acknowledged, Avon.” Blake sighed and took Tarrant’s hand in his as they left the room.

 

//||\\\

 

“Aline Moynihan. Thirty three standard years old. Graduated from the Tesla Institute of Tara, 14th in a class of five hundred and twelve. Specialized in stardrives and spatial engineering. Was considered to be one of the top contenders for the Stardrive competition held in this sector until she decided to pursue her own ambitions. Lived in the same complex since she was born, save for the years spent on campus at the Tesla Institute. Had seven children, four husbands and one wife. All family, parents, sibling, spouses, children, and everyone within a fifth degree of association killed when Captain Ronnie Blair had an asymptomatic reaction to the current disease plaguing the Tarans. It killed him instantly and the transport he was handling crashed on the main house of the complex, killing everyone instantly. Her entire family was wiped out. She was in town picking up a large order of food for breakfast. She wanted off planet, they placed her in quarantine, once they determined that she was not infected, she was allowed on board. There is nothing holding her here anymore and the requirements for her talents are not in true use on the station. She would be useful on board.

“Lethro, Avon, Roj, and I went to interview here and if you look at the tablets, our conclusions are there. If you have any questions for us, please ask.” Tarrant concluded, allowing the picture of Aline to stay up on the main viewscreen on the bridge.

Soolin bit her lip as she read through the file, “She mentioned that she isn’t loyal to the Federation but she isn’t loyal to the Resistance either. How can we be sure we can trust her?”

“You weren’t loyal to the Resistance either, you just didn’t like the Federation, Soolin.” Tarrant replied. “Same as I but over time we have come to realize that something needs to be done and we are in a position to help it be done. We can not destroy the Federation on our own, much less take it over but we can help other planets to free themselves.”

Soolin nodded. “True enough. She seems to be qualified and I don’t get any negative feeling from her. Lethro, you said that you helped to interview her?”

Lethro turned to face her, “Yes, and I have found no reason to deny her. Though I will admit that I will be watching her for a few months just to reassure myself of her motivations. Of course, the most overwhelming sense of emotion that I got from her was grief. Which is understandable. She is dealing with it by self-dosing herself with her religion. I took the liberty to research her religion and consult a religious leader of her sect on the space station. He has given me all the necessary information on rituals, rites, and holy days that she might need.”

Vila looked at him, one eye squinting, “Big on her religion?”

“Yes, but from, mwhat I can tell from the historical records and a search of the current media of Tara, she belongs to the dominant religion which has maintained a doctrine of personal faith. Simply put, the religion and it’s leaders claim that being part of that religion is a personal choice and it should not be used for political purposes nor does it encourage proselytizing. For a religion, it is quite healthy. So I forsee no true problems with her practice and any of you. We shall simply restrict it to her quarters, my quarters and any other venue on an as needed basis.”

Vila nodded, “Wait, your quarters?”

“My quarters are also considered to be my ‘office’ so to speak.”

Blake looked at him, “And what office would that be?”

“I’m the ship psychologist, of course.” Lethro nodded. “By the by, you do realize that I didn’t sign up for this so once we get to Allimi, you might have to find a new one unless I get seconded to your group, Avon, Blake.”

“Joy.” Avon drawled.

Lethro shrugged and turned to Coll, “Any input?”

“No, but she should too good to be true. A young woman of childbearing years, who was a mother and who lost all her family wants to go out and explore the universe rather than find a new home and have another child? No offense but the excuse that she ‘decided to pursue her own ambitions’ was probably made soon before or after the first child was born. She gave up her career for her family. The only reason she wasn’t killed was she wanted to surprise her family with a good breakfast. This is a woman to whom family meant everything but rather seek a new home, she’s running from her home? I would believe it more if she had decided to retreat to some isolated place and bear the children of her dead spouses than to think she would run away from the entire planet.”

Lethro nodded, “I agree, except that when I talked to her, she accepted their deaths somewhat fatalistically. I don’t mean that she’s not angry or depressed but rather she is framing it as part of some grand plan that she does not understand. This is in line with the doctrines of her religion, also in line with them is to move on. That to wallow in self pity is destructive. Avon, whom may I say is a genius,” Lethro grinned as he teased the dark man, “hacked several files from her deceased family. Including a will, and there were letters from each adult family member, including Aline herself. Apparently they believed in being prepared. The important part is that almost every letter at some point mentioned moving on and not being stuck in the pattern of regret and loss. She can not help but be stuck if she stays on planet. The death of her entire family is such a great tragedy that they have become a symbol. The only way to escape that symbol would to leave the planet but even on the space station they know about her and her family. As the healing progresses, there will be changes in people coming and going. People from the planet are going to come up and when they find her…

“Humans are humans, even though their predominant religion discourages it, Aline herself will become a symbol of the tragedy. They will hound her with the reason that they are trying to help her. She can never have any life that isn’t overshadowed by this tragedy.”

Coll nodded, “Does she realize this?”

“I doubt it. However, it is another reason I support her coming along. We may all sympathize with her but we won’t coddle her nor treat her like a talisman.”

“Alright, but what happens if she falls in love or decides to settle down?”

Blake sighed, “The Administrator has asked if that happens that we either give her passage back here or let her go on to whatever planet she wishes but said that part of the contract will be that Aline must interview and provide us with a replacement for her services before we let her go.

“Any other questions?”

Some shook their heads but no one spoke up.

“Very well. Any objections?”

After a moment, Blake smiled. “Then I guess we have a new engineer.”

Vile raised one hand, “One question?”

Blake nodded at him.

“Does anyone know if the Administrator is a male or female?”

Lethro put his head down on the table and laughed.

 

//||\\\

 

Aline sat in the garden and knelt on the grass. To her left stood a tall black candle, to her right a tall white candle. On each candle was written names, tiny writing to fit all the names. Silently, she light the white candle and from the white candle lit the black one.

She had received the offer today and knew she was going to take it. This world held nothing but pain and grief overwhelming for her. Softly, she whispered a prayer for the souls of her loved one. Choking the words out despite the huge lumps in her throat.

Behind her the Administrator sat quietly, watching over her as the Administrator always had. A warm hand brushed the back of her neck as the Administrator knelt beside her.

“Your child, your wife, grieves so. I wish that I could promise you her safety but I can’t, I will promise you that I will do my best to help heal her. My heart aches for your child, but I hope you understand why I send her away. Perhaps one day she can look upon this green world with love again.”

“Thank you, Elder.” Aline whispered.

“Would that I still had a claim to you, little one.” The Administrator wrapped Aline in their robes and held Aline as the candles burned down.

 

//||\\\

 

Two days later

 

“We’re departing orbit now, _Moytura_. Thanks for the supplies and good luck with the plague. _Sovereignty_ out.” Tarrant transmitted.

“Good _Sovereignty_ and thank you. If you ever swing this way again, you and the Resistance are welcome. Good luck with the engine tests, _Moytura_ out.

Tarrant programmed in the vector and they sailed outbound of the system. It would be almost an hour before they were far enough out to engage the Plaxton drive but as soon as they passed the limit, Orac would let them know. The trip to Allimi would now take only thirteen days. With all the stores Moytura stuff them with, they wouldn’t even have to stop for provisions.

Opening a comm channel to the engine room, he grinned, “How are the engines, Aline?”

“Purring… oh she is a beauty. Just finished checking out the Plaxton drive, looks just beautiful. If Avon’s up there tell him he did good work and he’s now my assistant!” Aline laughed delightedly.

“Alright, Orac says, forty three minutes on… MARK!”

“Very well, don’t run the ship into an asteroid on the way out, Engine Room out!”

 

//||\\\

 

Forty two minutes, thirty second later  
Engine Room

 

Aline smiled as the Plaxton engines stood on standby. All she heard was a pleasant little hum. The resonance didn’t even jar the teeth. That tall dark drink of mud was wasted in the computer department.

“Bridge.” Tarrant answered.

“Well, we have about twenty five seconds to go. I want everyone strapped down on the bridge just in case.” Aline warned.

“Everyone’s here and strapped down.” He confirmed

“Wonderful. Orac, you monitoring?”

“But of course.” Orac responded with exasperation.

“Good, because I want to review this data later. Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… Drives on.”

Aline turned towards her viewscreen. At first nothing seemed to happen then the stars vibrated and turned to lines that blurred to a mottled grey white. Grinning, she turned back to her instruments. The drive was performing wonderfully and not running too hot. Well they had another eight hours before they would shut it down. Time to get to analyzing some data.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short this time, but sweet.

Blake leaned against the door to his quarters and sighed. This thing with Tarrant is way too complicated. All he wanted to was sleep. It was however very reassuring to see the real Del comes out. Opening the door, he stopped short. Del was curled up in one of the chairs just staring at the wall.

“Del.” Blake walked over and sat on the arm of the chair. “Del.”

“I was trying not to lose my temper.”

“It’s okay to have a temper, just moderated it. Not eliminate it.” Blake rested one hand on Tarrant’s neck.

“My temper got you killed.”

“I’m not dead.”

“I didn’t know you had any armor.”

“I was living on Gauda Prime, of course I had armor. I may have been idealistic but I’m not anywhere near stupid, dear.”

“Dear? What, you like it when I lose my temper?”

“No, I like the real Tarrant. He was young and arrogant. Yet, he was and still is very attractive to me. Would I like it if he took time to think things through, of course I would. Especially since if you plan better and think plans through you are more likely to be around for many years with me.”

Del looked up at him, eyes wide. “So…”

Roj felt a smile curl over his face. “Maybe. Right this minute, why don’t we sleep, just sleep tonight.”

Del gracefully uncurled himself and stood up, looking down with his whole two inch advantage, he took Roj’s chin in his hand and kissed him gently. “Fine, for tonight, just sleep. Tomorrow…”

Roj laughed and held out his hand. Happily, he led Del to bed.

 

//||\\\

 

Lethro opened his eyes and held himself still. There was a warm weight next to him. He was… he was dressed, so… oh yeah. Coll, groaning softly, he moved gently to try to disentangle himself from Coll. Whatever dreams he was having wasn’t so bad, at least his skull wasn’t pounding anymore.

Standing upon unsteady and half asleep legs, he moved quietly to the bedroom door. One last glance and he left the bedroom and soon left the room. He turned towards his room then back towards the bridge. Entering, he noticed that Avon was still there but no one save Orac was with him.

“Hey.”

“You look like hell.”

“Thanks so much, my dear little friend.”

Avon gave him a cutting glare.

“Fine, yes, I was shanghai’d by need and sorrow on the way to my rooms. Any chance that your offer for peace is still open?”

Avon turned in his seat to look at him. After a moment, he nodded.

“Thank you. Tell me a bedtime story?”

“There once was an evil witch named Servalan, she thought she could steal my spaceship. She died. The End.”

Lethro growled, “Tell me about how you fell in love with Zethyr. I’ve been wondering about that. How can you fall in love with someone who has no connection to society and doesn’t care if he does.”

“I said that I was in love with him. I never claimed he was in love with me. Do you only love those who love you?”

Lethro sat shocked, “No, you are right. Just as I can love those who will never love me, there must be some who love me but I don’t them. I accept that. So tell me how you fell in love with him.”

“It was a long time ago, fifth month, twenty-second day, in year 311. I was fifteen and he was just about to turn fifteen. We went…”

 

//||\\\

 

311.22.05

Rosel Academy

 

Kerr Avon watched his friend surreptitiously from the corner of his eyes. Most of the children in the school would have recognized what this device was for but Zethyr claimed to be as confused as ever. His friend really didn’t understand this did he? Then again, it’s why his parents were so eager to turn him over to the school. As they approached the stream, Kerr stopped and waited until Zethyr noticed. A few steps later, he turned around.

“Kerr?”

“Just wait. Stay here.”

Zethyr shrugged and came back. Nodding, he shook out the blanket and spread it across the grounds before sitting on it. It was a nice spot under a tree, shaded and good for a nap.

Avon sat on the blanket next to him. “They are worried about you.”

“They always worry about me. They are certain that someone will do something and I will determine that the idiot has no purpose and extinguish him.”

Kerr frowned, “Then they would kill you, which is not optimal for myself or for you. No, they worry that by now you should have made connections to your peers. As an Alpha class grade, we should be of the age to share affection, warmth, and even sex. You show no interest in sex with our classmates. Not for warmth nor for manipulation purposes.”

“I can handle them fine without sex, besides if they think it’s a possibility they will keep striving for my attention. Which I withhold until my standards are met.”

“Your standards are never met.”

Zethyr smiled crookedly, “Not true. They have never met my standards but you have. In some cases exceeded them.”

Kerr raised one eyebrow.

“I know they worry about me but to tell the truth, these children are dull. They are like plastic dolls. I could rip the head off one and place it on another, do that with every limb and they would still be as dull and insipid as ever. _They_ bore me.”

“You need a relationship with someone otherwise they will categorize you as Omega and kill you.”

“Then let it be you. I don’t desire them. I don’t even know I desire you but I do know one thing. One simple thing that every single one of them never managed to do, not even those wastes of flesh that presume to call themselves my parents.”

“Oh?”

“They tried to tell me what was right and what was wrong. They tried to get me feel something for anyone or anything. But you… I don’t want to disappoint you. If you tell me to, I will pursue a relationship with one of those dolls but I will despise them for even touching me. I don’t know what right is or what wrong is, but I do know that if you are disappointed in me… it hurts.”

Kerr stared at him. “A focus. I’m your focus.”

Zethyr shrugged. “If you say so.”

Kerr laughed, “I think I know how we are going to save you and it will work because it takes advantage of your weakness. Also, I never wanted you to touch one of those plastic abominations. You are mine. You will always be mine. You will not let them touch you sexually because it will make me mad.”

Zethyr’s stomach fluttered at the demand and he let his eyes flutter shut. “Yes, my Kerr.”

Kerr reached over and took Zethyr’s hand in his, tugging him closer, he let Zethyr lay on his chest and knew for the first time that they were going to outthink the doctors. Nothing else was acceptable. Zethyr was his.

 

//||\\\

 

Lethro smiled sleepily. “Voice is soothing, your emotions when you think about him even more so. So tell me more?”

“For him to graduate from the Rosel Academy, he needed to do an exit interview. He decided to throw a fit if I wasn’t allowed to join him. It was designed to make them think he didn’t want to be without me. It started four days before we were to graduate. Dr. Shakir called him in; we were in his room…”

 

//||\\\

 

The door opened and a messenger came in.

“I guess a closed door isn’t a sign that the people inside are not accepting visitors anymore. What do you want?” Kerr asked from his position on the bed, Zethyr curled up on his side, one hand splayed over Kerr’s chest. The messenger stared at them for a moment.

“Dr. Shakir requires Zethyr Ari for his exit interview. You are to report immediately.”

Kerr turned to look at his boyfriend and nodded. Zethyr rolled off the other side and went to the closet, pulling out two shirts, he handed one to Kerr and pull the other on. Moving to Kerr’s side, he took his hand and started for the door.

“He only requested you, Ari.”

“My name is Zethyr, I don’t go by the other one anymore and no. If I can’t take Avon, I’m not going.”

The messenger looked at Zethyr like he was going to say something but just went over to the viewscreen and called Dr. Shakir. A few minutes of talking and he turned back. “Fine, the doctor will expect both of you within the next ten minutes.”

Zethyr turned to face Kerr and grinned. Kerr reached up and brushed on finger against his cheek and pulled him close. “We will do this.”

Grabbing a tablet, Kerr and Zethyr left his room. Right on ten minutes later they had crossed the campus and we just entering the Head Doctor’s office. The assistant nodded and buzzed them in. It was an office that they were well familiar with. The walls practically shone from the gleaming white paint yet the decorations were colorful and varied. Rugs of many styles helped to define the sections of the office. Kerr and Zethyr walked over to their usual soft moss green couch shaded by potted plants. The doctor followed and looked at them.

“Welcome, you do know why you are here right?”

Zethyr nodded, “You want to make sure that I am not a danger to other people.”

Dr. Shakir smiled gently, the motion creating soft wrinkles in his chestnut flesh. “No, I want to make sure that you are happy and that you are mentally stable. Not just for other’s safety but for your own as well. You keep forgetting about yourself, your life, and your value.”

Kerr frowned, “He doesn’t have to worry about that, that’s what I am for.”

The doctor looked at him, “And what if you aren’t there?”

Zethyr looked up. “That’s not going to happen.”

“Yet it can.”

“It won’t. Kerr is mine, he was made for me.”

Kerr nodded, “As he is for me. Doctor, I know what you are thinking but I love him. I love him and have no intention of leaving him. We have not mentioned this to anyone but Zethyr has accepted my proposal. I can not afford him a ring yet however he has accepted.”

“I have you, I need no ring.” Zethyr looked up from where he had his head on Kerr’s shoulder, “I have you.”

The doctor nodded. “I have watched your relationship since you first became friends and I have to say that I approve of it. To watch you form a connection even if it is only to one person means such hope to me.

“The university has contacted me. Zethyr, pre-law?”

“I’m still not sure what I want to do but I thought pre-law would give me a direction. Really, I’m thinking that maybe I would like to go into advocacy, especially for children.”

“Is this because of what your parents did?” Shakir asked gently.

“The Aris abandoned me. That’s okay because Kerr is giving me a new name. He’s giving me the name of Avon. Soon, I will be Zethyr Avon and I can not await the day fast enough.”

Kerr smiled his crooked smile and stroked Zethyr rich brown hair. “I will be pleased if you changed your name.”

“You just want everyone to know that I am yours.”

Kerr raised one eyebrow, “Of course I do. Because you are.”

Zethyr grinned and laid his head back down. “Kerr is going into computers, of course…”

 

//||\\\

 

Present

 

Avon turned to see Lethro sleeping in his chair, hair in disarray and hanging strands. Shaking his head, he consulted the console and ordered the computer to raise the temperature another two degrees as well as lowering the lights to forty percent.


	10. Chapter 10

Ten days to Allimi

 

Del opened his eyes and waited. Curled light brown hair was the only thing he could see. A broad warm back pressed against his front. Roj. He was in Roj’s bed. A slow curled over his face. Slowly, afraid of waking his new… not exactly a lover but more than a potential boyfriend, his new paramour. Del grimaced at the thought of that word. It was so twenty second century. Hmmm… his romantic interest. If he had his way this would be for more than warmth. Arm tightening even more he sighed, letting warm breath blow against the back of Roj’s neck. Maybe they could stay just like this for a while, maybe for more than a while. Roj wouldn’t laugh at that, he knew but even though Roj would understand, they couldn’t. And Lethro would be pressing him to come to counseling sessions.

Which he needed, he understood now what he overheard. He hasn’t been acting like himself lately. He was acting like a child who was hiding what he was from sight like if he didn’t admit to what he did then it didn’t exist but it did. He screwed up. He screwed up big time and the fact that no one died wasn’t because he was a genius but because luck decided to step in. Roj hadn’t betrayed them, he had. This was his fault. Pressing closer to Roj, he moved one leg over his beloved’s leg and held him tight as tears fell softly. He had almost sacrificed the very man he loved so much now. Shuddering breaths rippled through his body.

 

//||\\\

 

Roj felt the bed shaking and opened his eyes, blinking to wipe away the bleariness. He could feel cold wetness against his neck. The steel band across his chest turned out to be Del’s arm, the trembling was the shakes, and the wetness was tears. He tried to turn around but Del’s arms kept him from doing so. He raised one hand and placed it on Del’s arm.

“We are alive.”

“Not-not… I”

“Was ignorant. Yes, but that’s a function of being young. You left the service pretty much right after you finished officer training, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then you didn’t get the full education because the middie year is part of that. To be in the chain of command is to learn something, and you didn’t do your full midshipman cruise did you?”

He felt Del shake his head.

“Young men are ignorant, but to be stupid you have to refuse to learn from what’s going on, and you have learned. If you didn’t you wouldn’t be grieving now, would you?”

Arms tightening and a fresh well of tears fell on his shoulder.

“Del, I… I forgive you. I apparently did my act well enough to fool you but I do not blame you. You knew me but you didn’t know me well enough for me to do what I did. I am so sorry. Please forgive me for what I did and know that I forgive you for believing my act.”

The arms loosened. “You do not need to ask me for forgiveness but I will selfishly take the forgiveness that you offer.”

“I offer it because I should have tried to contact you so that you knew what was going on. I don’t blame you for believing what I was doing. Considering all the adjustments that I have undergone, how would you know if I was truly betraying you or not?”

“I should have trusted you.”

“Why? No one is unadjustable.” Roj pointed out softly, “After all, I was adjusted and it was only because of the Resistance that I was told of who I had been. I still don’t remember the man I was, I just remember what I was told of him. So, knowing that can you trust that I haven’t been adjusted again?”

Del frowned, “I… guess I can’t.”

“No, and neither can I. Maybe I did betray you. I was held for over a year by the Federation. It’s amazing that I remember who you or Avon or Vila or Soolin or Dayna is.”

“Roj. Blake. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that I almost got you killed. I’m so sorry that I told Avon that. I… I… didn’t think he would shoot you. I didn’t think! Of course he would. To find someone else who had betrayed him, someone else whom he loved… even Avon has a breaking point and I think I found that point. I’m sorry that I ever pushed him into that.”

“Then we both have much to be sorry for and much to apologize to Avon for. Me for abandoning him, for not telling him what I had planned, and for not trusting him enough to seek his help. You need to apologize for taking who he was for granted and for pushing him into an action that he regrets. I would tell you that you deserve an apology too but do you think he will honestly give you one?”

Del chuckled creakily, “No, I wish I could say that I could expect one but let’s tell the truth, he won’t.”

Roj finally was able to turn himself around to look at Del who blinked at him and said “Hey beautiful.”

Roj laughed.

Del sighed. “Amazing isn’t it?”

“Huh?”

“How good it feels to apologize. To be forgiven?”

Roj nodded, “Yes, which is why I’m going to feel bad until I talk to Avon. I keep saying that I understood what I had done to him but I don’t do I? I broke him.”

Del sighed, “Do you want to know the truth?”

Roj nodded again.

“He cracked and cracked and cracked. Nothing we could do or say could fix it. Things looked darker and darker. You know he tried to kill Vila, and I’m not sure if he was really trying to kill Vila to rid himself of having someone he cared for, especially having lost so many that he had cared for or if he was trying to drive Vila way so that Vila would not be pulled down into the mess Avon found himself in.”

Roj tapped on finger against Del’s chest, thinking. “He wanted to save Vila. No matter what he says, he cares about Vila. He would share warmth with him if Vila asked. Vila will never ask though. Vila won’t ask because he knows that Avon doesn’t want to connect in that way with another person. But if Vila really needed it, Avon would offer. He cares about Vila that much.”

Del closed his eyes tightly. “I so screwed up with him and Vila, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you didn’t understand the bond between them. That’s why he threatened to kill you. You pose a danger to someone who is as close to him as he is to me.”

“I should apologize for that as well?”

“What do you think?” Roj gave him a look that made it clear.

“Yeah. Later though. Right now, I want to just keep making sure you’re alive.”

Roj chuckled and leaned forward, kissing Del softly before taking his hand and moving it lower. “I am more than just alive, Del.”

Del grinned and pushed forward to tangle his other hand in Roj’s hair, lips seeking flesh. This was Roj and he was finally going to be able to show him exactly why he should give in to Del Tarrant.

 

//||\\\

 

Coll woke up slowly, stretching carefully extending his limbs until he felt them tighten in pleasant tension. Swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, he got up and noticed that there were two spots rumpled. The memory of last night came back to him suddenly. Gasping, he sat back on the bed and tried to calm his breathing. It was true, he had to face it, and it was true. His friend, if one can call him that, was a sociopath who cared nothing for anyone. Who was unable to truly connect with anyone except maybe Avon and what did that say about Avon?

Coll bit his lip as he tried not to cry about it. Maybe Lethro was right, it was time to move on, maybe when they reach Allimi he should ask about a new assignment rather than stay to watch Zethyr play happy families with Avon.

The communit beeped. He moved to the chair in front of it and sat down. Hitting a button, it brought up his inbox and he chose the most recent message. Of course it was from Lethro.

_Dear Coll,_

_I hope this message finds you well. It occurs to me that I may have been overly aggressive yesterday. No, let’s scratch that. I’m sorry that I came on so strongly. I was talking to Avon and I asked him how could he be so eager to rejoin his husband when he wasn’t even sure that Zethyr could even love him. He asked me, ‘Do you love someone because you love them or because you expect them to love you?’ I should have remembered that. I made a rookie mistake with you. I could say it was because I was sleepy but I think I was just in a bad mood and I ask you to forgive me for that.  
If you want to love him, love him. I just don’t want you to put your life and your purpose on hold for him. I want you to seek a life that will make you happy not just satisfied. Anyways, I have that list for you. If you want to talk about it later, then give me a call._

_Lethro_

_Grade each one on a scale of one to ten._

_1\. Glib and…_

 

//||\\\

 

Coll entered the mess hall. Avon was seated against the far wall, eating quietly. Coll walked over and sat down, he bridged his hands and looked at Avon. Several minutes passed until Avon put his fork down, wiped his mouth, and glared back at him.

“Why do you love him?” Coll asked gently.

“What?”

“Why do you love him? Or if that’s too much to ask, why are you going back to him? Is it because you gave him a promise when he took your ring? Is it because you know your daughter is alive? Is it because you are afraid to leave your daughter in his custody knowing what you know about him? Is it because without him your life is dimmer, duller, and darker?” Coll leaned forward, his eyes scanning Avon’s face.

“He is mine. He will always be mine.”

“I know that. I’m trying to see why you want him so much. Just because he was yours like the puzzle box?” Coll pressed.

“Because with me, he can connect. I was made for him and he for me. I accept him for what he is.”

Coll stared at him for a moment longer before standing up. Leaning down, he pressed a kiss to Avon’s forehead before taking Avon’s head in his hand.

“Then I want you to be happy. Truly I do. I hope he is everything you expect and everything you need.” Coll smiled at him once more before walking away.

Avon stared after him and wondered what had just happened.

 

//||\\\

 

Coll stopped in front of Lethro’s door, pressing his palm against the flat smooth surface. Taking a deep breath, he pressed the button for admittance. The door opened smoothly to reveal no one in the main area. Walking in, he sat on the couch to wait, his mind going ten miles a minute. He heard the door from the bedroom open and looked up. Lethro stood framed in the doorway, one towel around his waist and another over his head. His hair was longer than it looked, weighted down with water. It was slightly curled from the wet and was the color of dark honey with hints of even darker strands. From what Coll could see, Lethro had a good body, not too muscled but definitely defined. Coll could feel the blood rushing to his face. Clearning his throught he turned his face away and closed his eyes.

“I thought since you door opened you were … ahhh… ready for visitors.”

Lethro gaped at him before grinning. “I am. After all, with my ability to read emotions you are as naked before me so why would I be ashamed of being naked before you. Though I do appreciate the compliment of your blushes.” Lethro chuckled and sat down on the other couch. “So, is there something I can help you with?”

“Yeah. I ummm think that we have what, a little more than a standard week and half before we reach Allimi. I think it’s time we brief the crew on the cell we are about to meet. I want to give them profiles and I was wondering if you had any data. I mean considering that you work for the Resistance Council.”

Lethro smiled tightly. “And what makes you think I work for such an august body?”

“Simple. If I was on such a council I wouldn’t let you out of my sight. You would be too useful and valuable. You told me when you described what kind of work you do. It was obvious then, did you not want us to know?”

“No, but if you know then so does Avon, Blake, Soolin, and Dayna. Not so sure about Del and likely not Aline. Okay, so what do you want in particular?”

“You have data about most of the larger cells, I’m pretty sure you have some biographical data on my cell and I want you to share.”

Lethro frowned. “You are right, I do have some data. Some of it can be shared, some can’t. Give me a couple hours to edit what can be shared?”

Coll nodded. “Thank you.”

Lethro stood up, hand clutching the towel at his waist. “Until later, Coll.”

 

//||\\\

 

Avon sat, a glass dangling in his hand as a video played on the viewscreen. A young man with darker hair than he remember and flat grey eyes held a young girl. She had rich deep dark hair that hung below her shoulders. Her face was still chubby from baby fat but you could tell it would be a longer face with a smooth chin. Her skin was a bit lighter than his and her eyes were light, not gray but more to the color of clarified honey. She laughed and leaned back against her father, her generous lips open and the small teeth flashing. Zethyr reached up and stroked her cheek, his eyes looking out as usual.

He was a good father. She didn’t even notice. Avon knew that she would not be so immediately accepting of him but that was alright, he rather a wary child than a stupid one and he knew that Zethyr would never allow her to remain stupid. To see the child that they had waited for so long; to see her laughing and smiling and obviously happy. Twelve years of suffering was worth it. His daughter was happier than he ever had been.

The chime for the door sounded and Avon paused the video. Wondering if he should open the door, he shrugged and signaled it to open. Turning back, he restarted the video. The couch that he was reclining on sank slowly.

“She’s beautiful. She has some of your looks.” Blake mentioned quietly.

“Indeed. But then her other father is absolutely stunning.”

“I came to apologize to you. I was wrong for not contacting you. I was wrong to well… act like Tarrant. I went full steam ahead, not planning this, not discussing it with anyone. I’m sorry for all I subjected you to. I’m sorry that I put you in such a position. Can you forgive me?”

“Do we need forgiveness from each other?”

“Yes, but I already forgave you. I am a bit still shaky with you. It’s going to take time until we fall into sync again but I know we can. Because it’s us.” Blake slumped against Avon, wrapping one arm around him. “Will you forgive me?”

“Done.”

“So… she’s what, twelve or thirteen now?”

“Twelve, her birthday was supposed to be around ninth month, twenty seventh day.”

“Almost as pretty as you, I wonder how bright she is.”

Avon turned and crooked an eyebrow up at him. “She’s likely a genius; after all she likely takes after her genius father. Me.”

Blake laughed.

 

//||\\\

 

Lethro sighed as he tried to parse this last portfolio. Even though he knew more about this person than what was written here to include it would reveal too much but he did want to give Avon a clue to what he was capable of. Sighing, he deleted it. Maybe he could find a way to-

Lethro jumped as the door chime sounded in his room.

“Enter.” He called out as he turned around and dimmed the screen.

Tarrant entered, all long limbs and stride. “Hello.”

“You’re looking a lot better. I’m sorry for what I said to you, yesterday, Tarrant.” Lethro apologized, standing up and waving him to a seat. “It was planned. I had no idea that you were acting so out of character and I really did want to see the real you.”

Tarrant nodded, his curls floating. “You’re right. I was a bit… out of my head. I almost got Roj killed. I almost got Avon killed. I did believe that I got Roj, Vila, Soolin, and Dayna killed. I was so sure that I was right. I was positive and I told him that Blake had betrayed all of us. I thought I could see through him but I didn’t. It was my fault.”

“Yes. It was. So now what are you going to do about it?”

“Roj, well, as you know he’s mentoring me and quite a few of the problems he has me working through known cons.”

“Vila can help you with that, if you try not to intimidate or bully him.”

Tarrant nodded resignedly. “Yeah, he would, wouldn’t he?”

Lethro nodded, “Okay, my next task for you is simple. Talk to Vila. You don’t have to be his buddy, you don’t have to fall in love with him but I do want you to have a talk with him. Not only that but I want you to tell me what you two have talked about. Alright?”

Tarrant nodded. “By the way, early this morning, Roj pointed out that this whole mess with Avon had a lot of factors, including some on my part. Any ideas on how to apologize to him without him taking advantage of it?”

Lethro pursed his lips. “Not one bloody clue. But I’ll think on it and if I come up with anything, I’ll let you know.”

Tarrant nodded again and stood up. As he approached the door, he stopped and without turning around, he said, “Thanks.” And with that he was out the door.

Lethro grinned. Small progress, exceedingly small but oh so worth it. Now back to that portfolio, maybe if he alluded to a certain incident then he wouldn’t have to spell it out and that way he could get the warning in without betraying a confidence. Yes, that might work, with a happy sigh, Lethro got to work with an easier heart and a clearer mind.

 

//||\\\

 

Tarrant stared into the mess hall, Vila was seated in a dim corner along the far wall. Slowly so as to know scare the thief, he walked softly. Apparently not soft enough. Vila’s head came up and he stood up, picking up his drink. Tarrant stopped.

“I’m not here to hurt you.”

“So you say now, but when you get cranky, you get violent.” Vila pointed out.

“Not this time. I want to talk to you.”

“Yeah, about what?”

“A couple of things. The cons you have seen and how you see through them. The fact that you probably knew that Roj hadn’t really turned. Why Avon is so protective of you? How you can forgive him for trying to murder you?”

Vila stared at him for a moment before taking his seat again. “Fine, but you stay over there.”

Tarrant nodded and took a seat two tables away. “Okay.”

“You want to know how I knew that Blake hadn’t turned and why Avon’s so protective of me, and why I can forgive him. It’s all the same thing. We are all that’s left of the original crew. It was me, Blake, Avon, Jenna and Gan on the _Liberator_ to begin with. Cally came later. We have gone through so much together. And even Blake got captured but of them all, only me and Avon were ever left. I’m his lucky totem, his golden Buddha but I also understand everything because I lived it with him. I’ve saved his life and he’s saved mine. It’s something I don’t know if you understand but it creates something between us. Everyone else has died, but not me. He doesn’t want me to die either. As for Blake, well… even when he flaked off, he never abandoned the Resistance.”

Tarrant frowned. “He mentioned the fact that he has been tampered with so many times. How could you be sure that he wouldn’t have abandoned the Resistance?”

Vila nodded, sipping his drink. “You know that Blake was a Resistance leader before, what he doesn’t know is that I knew of him before. He was a bomb expert. Then he got caught, wiped, and reprogrammed as a civil engineer to protect the very building he once would have tried to blow up. He got curious and reconnected with the Resistance. They wiped him and he still found his way back to the Resistance. Wiping doesn’t always work. And I’m proof of that.

“Do you know how many times they have tinkered with my brain? I’m still a thief and I always will be one but I’ll be the best thief I can be. And that’s another link between me and Avon. Different scope but same thing. We’re thieves. Survivors as well. We have a motto, you know. ‘Not Stupid. Not Expendable. Not Going.’ That’s us in a nutshell. We will survive no matter what it takes and that’s why I can forgive him for trying to kill me. It’s one of three things as far as I can figure.

“One, he wanted to drive me away before I got sucked into his madness. That’s possible because he believes himself to have brought death and destruction to everyone he’s ever cared about. He thought Zethyr dead of something he did. Anna dead because of him only to find out that she was alive and end up having to kill her. Blake captured and destroyed because of a failed plan of Avon’s. To have me, the last of the people close to him dragged into the mess. Yeah, he could have been trying to drive me away.

“Two, he was mad and tried to destroy me before anything else destroyed me. At least this way he was in control of something. With everything else happening, I can see this, can’t you?

“Third, he really was being very practical. Think about it. Of the two of us, who is more valuable? If it wasn’t for Avon then this crew would fall apart and you know it. Dayna and Soolin are not loyal to you. It is Avon that holds us together, he became the glue that bonds us together especially after Blake left. You don’t have the same bond with all of us. In that case, well… I’m no big supporter of the Resistance but Avon… he needs the Resistance to find Blake. And I am a sucker for a happy ending.”

Tarrant frowned as he thought about what Vila said, “What happy ending can they have now?”

“The happiest one, Blake got his soul mate back and so did Avon. Now both of them have people they love as well.”

Tarrant quirked a strange grin, “How do you know that I’m not his soul mate?”

“Because you don’t click with him. Not to say that you don’t love him or he you or at least you’ll grow into love with each other but the truth is that there are people when you meet them you just click. That’s a soul mate, you don’t have to fall in love with them. And I think that’s just how it is with them. They work well together but they could never be lovers. They would destroy each other instead they have people they love and they have each other back and let me tell you, if Blake pulls this crap again, I might just kill him. Crazy Avon is **not** fun!” Vila complained before taking a deep gulp of his drink,

Tarrant saluted him, “On that, we can agree.”

Vila just grinned as the younger man left.

 

//||\\\

 

Blake watched as Aline puttered around the engine room. He had no clue what she was doing but it seemed like she was busy. Sitting down in a seat, he waited for her to calm down enough to talk to him. Her hair was in its braid but doubled up to it didn’t hang. She breezed by him then stopped and came back.

“Blake, I didn’t know you had come in. What can I do for you?”

“Aline, it looked like you were busy. I just wanted to talk to you. We’re planning a meeting of all the crew because in nine days we’ll reach Allimi and I wanted to prepare all of you about the people we’re meeting. I know that the Administrator asked that you not be involved in things concerning the Resistance without warning. That’s why I want to talk to you. We’re meeting a Resistance cell.”

Aline nodded, “I thought we were taking Avon back to his husband?”

“We are. Probably because he thought Avon as dead, he fled to the Resistance for help. Over time he has come to lead the Resistance in his sector.”

“Oh, aye. That I can see. He would blame the Federation for the death of his beloved.”

“Well… we really aren’t sure that he loves Avon. He was a sociopath, I don’t know if one can recover from that but they have a child. She was born after Avon’s ‘death’. From what we are told she is a happy child.”

Aline stared at him, “Happy though her father feels nothing?”

“Avon thinks Zethyr can act well enough to pass.”

“Still. And you want me to not come to this meeting?”

“No, I want you to know that you have a choice to come or not. I would likeyou to come but I don’t want to force you to get involved in something you don’t want to do.” Blake reasoned.

“I get that, but the Administrator, they… are more concerned for me than anyone else. Oh, yes they are one of my elders. Technically the last member of my family left alive. However they gave up everything, all family ties, all recognition when they took up the title of Administrator.”

“Oh, didn’t realize that.”

“Bet you also didn’t realize that they are the sole head of government. Why do you think they were evacuated when the plague came out?”

Blake jumped, shocked as he realized. “The Administrator is your Planetary President.”

“Yes, but it a life title and they can’t have any connections which is why they had to leave the family. No one is actually elected but rather chosen. It’s a great honor but also a great sacrifice. However the very first ‘The Administrator’ was merely one of a group of Administrators. Chosen to lead the planet through a crisis. However they were very good so they stayed on but realized that they wanted to have their family around so much and then came to understand that they couldn’t do an adequate job if always worried about their family. So they cut all ties with their family. After that it became such that once one became THE Administrator they gave up everything. Their name, their gender, their titles, their status, and family.”

Blake nodded, “But you remember who they were before?”

“Yes, and by being so worried about me, I worried that they were breaking their oath but my tragedy became the world’s and so they could do what they could.” Aline smiled sadly. “I do love them.”

“And they must care for you to give up so much for you.”

“Yes, I guess in a way me and Avon’s daughter have something in common. She was raised by someone who has no attachment to the world. I was raised by someone who gave up all attachment to the world. We both want something from our parents. I can’t wait to meet her.”

Blake nodded. “I think she’d like that.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little more information about Zethyr.

Eight days out from Allimi

 

Lethro stopped short as he entered the room. Everyone was already there. “Ahh, I thought I had a few minutes but since we are all here. Let’s begin. Coll?”

Coll stood up. “I thought it might be good to give everyone a run down on who we are meeting. My cell, is run by Zethyr Ari, there are seven others that you should know. First is a married couple, Alistair and Alexandra Vanter. They are usually in charge of recruiting and training. Both are former Special Forces. Alistair was trained in Urban Survival and Infiltration. Alexandra was a member of the Space Special Forces; she can board a ship in less than eight minutes. Together, they are scary people even if they look like librarians. Along with them is Erich Aspen, he’s also Special Forces but he’s usually our lead team member. Next is Sula Wesi. She is in charge of logistics. She can get anything anywhere, maybe not the fastest considering that she’s working with underground resources but still she can get it. Brea is medical. Never piss off your physician. It would take a lot to piss him off but he’s in charge when we aren’t sure what we may be carrying to or from a place. He’s also a genius at decoding diseases which means he’s only a bit less good at building them. Victoria Flyer is our resident bomb doctor; she’s tall, and can’t stay away from fire. They’ve already tried to ‘fix’ her numerous times. Mycroft is our strategist and computer guy. He’s rather lean but sedentary. He doesn’t like to be bothered by people but don’t worry, he’s only antisocial, not sociopathic.

“Now if you will look at your tablet, there is more information there courtesy of the Resistance Council.”

Avon head sprang up and he stared at Coll before turning towards Lethro who was sitting there with a resigned look on his face.

“As if you didn’t already realize!” Lethro put his head down on the table. “I know you did.”

Avon nodded, his crooked grin one again crossing his face quickly. “I was wondering when you would tell us or if you would.”

“I didn’t need to.” Lethro replied softly. “As Coll pointed out, my gift is useful. Do you think that I wouldn’t be recruited? Now, I’m not on the council itself but I report to it. All troubleshooters do. There’s not that many of us anyways. Maybe less than a hundred of us.”

Avon nodded, “So you have the information of all cells?”

“Not really. I have information on the cells I am likely to encounter. I have information on you because you work in the sector. I had information on Coll’s cell because I was supposed to meet up with him in Sector and if necessary ask him to provide an exit strategy. However it wasn’t needed so,” Lethro shrugged. “And I didn’t give you everything. Some things cannot be proven at the moment, so I didn’t include it.”

Coll cleared his throat. He looked at Lethro with tiredness in his eyes, “You could have included that. I told you knowing that you would have to report it. It’s important for you to know. I did the survey and it only confirms what you told me. I… thank you for that but it hurts you know, however they should still know this.”

Coll took a deep breath, “I know for a fact that Zethyr killed a member of the Resistance. He not only killed him but felt no remorse for the death, it didn’t even matter one iota to him.”

Avon turned to stare at him, “He’s killed?”

“Yes. His name was Paul Pereira, he is… was the father of Terkerra’s best friend, Molla. He had a crush larger than myself on Zethyr. So much so that he got cocky. Then he went on a mission. He never came back. Or so that’s what we thought. He had come back. He had met Zethyr and this time he tried to force the issue. He told Zethyr that if he didn’t give in then he would reveal where Terkerra was. Because of the mission, the children were on another ship or planet, I’m not sure which. Zethyr told me himself when I asked what happened, that after this demand, he asked for time.

“Paul was confident that he had won this round and decided to be dangerous in victory. He shouldn’t have been. He went to his room where soon after arriving, he fell asleep. When he woke, he was in an airlock. Zethyr was on the other side. Paul asked for last words and Zethyr saw no reason to deny him them nor any reason not to tell me. Paul asked him to take care of his daughter and not let her know that it was his own fault that he had died. He should have known better than to try to force someone into a corner, just as he would kill for his child, so stupid to believe others wouldn’t kill for their own child. He asked that Zethyr never let Molla forget that he loves her then sat down and Zethyr opened the lock.”

Everyone sat in silence while Avon grits his teeth, a low growl forming. “You absolute blundering bloody idiots. I spent almost eight years keeping him from murder and you managed to let him get away with it. What is to stop him now from deciding that murder is a viable solution to things when they don’t go his way?”

They stared at him. Coll shrank back in his seat. “He doesn’t care.”

Avon turned on him. “WRONG! He can’t care. He doesn’t possess the capability for it. However when given a set of guidelines and a motive to hold to them, he can fake the ability to care well enough to fool a psychologist who had been studying him for over a decade. The only reason, he got away with murder is because not a single one of you had the ability to stand up to him and give him structure. I only hope I can fix what you destroyed with your supreme idiocy. Vila!”

Vila jumped up and followed Avon as he left

Coll covered his face as he slumped down.

Tarrant looked at Blake. “Can I wait to apologize to him until he’s less psychopathic?”

Blake nodded, “I suggest you wait.”

 

//||\\\

 

Vila watched Avon pace back and forth before he grabbed a box and beckoned Vila to follow. Confused Vila did follow until they reached the engine room and Avon called the bridge. “Orac, those modifications you were working on… are they ready?”

“Yes.”

“Put them on the screen.” He turned to Vila. “I need steady hands, have you been drinking?”

“No, not today but I know nothing about engines.”

“You know how to follow directions, correct? That’s all you need to do right now.”

Vila nodded and took off his shirt. “Fine, let’s get this done. By the way, what are we doing?”

“Modifying the engines to increase their speed by a factor of three. If this works we’ll be at Allimi in five days instead of eight.”

“Then let’s do it. Sooner we get there, sooner you can be with your husband right?”

Avon smiled for the first time in a while and agreed.

 

//||\\\

 

Aline watched the two men as they worked on the… her engines. Seeing Avon reach a point where it wasn’t a problem to interrupt him. She stepped up. “I can see some of the modifications on the board. Tell me, which part of this do you want me to do?”

Avon stared at her and then stood to lead her over to the view screen. Pointing to one section he asked, “Can you do this?”

“That I can. So an increase by a factor of two point six nine?” She nodded happily and went off to tune a section of the engine.

 

//||\\\

 

Tarrant waited until everyone but Lethro and Coll left. Stepping forward, he nodded to Coll. “Can I speak to Lethro alone for a moment, I promise that you can have him back soon.”

Coll nodded and waved at them before leaving.

Lethro sat back down. “Yes, Del?”

“When can I get back on the bridge?”

“Why do you need to get back on the bridge, there are enough people now that you can stand one watch every two to three days instead of every day.”

“I need something to do with my time.”

“You have plenty of homework. Both from myself and Roj.”

“I talked to Vila and as you could see, he was still alive.”

Lethro leaned forward, “Oh, and you can sit Tarrant. Tell me what you talked about.”

Tarrant sat heavily. “About why Avon tried to murder him. About why he didn’t believe that Roj had tried to kill them.”

“Heavy subjects, and did you find anything out?”

“Yeah, Avon and Vila apparently share a motto. It’s ‘Not Stupid, Not Expendable, Not Going’. Apparently it’s why they have survived for as long as they have.”

Lethro laughed loudly. “That is priceless.”

Tarrant grinned, “Vila mentioned that it was because of Avon that this group has held together.”

“It is. Avon may not be a people person but people respond to someone who has a purpose. And one thing Avon can do is hold onto a purpose. He is motivated, dedicated, calculated, and relentless. Most humans are not capable of the single minded determination like Avon is. This is why people are attracted to him. He gives his whole attention to what he wants. Everyone else wants to be the person Avon focuses so much attention on but too many people can’t stand it. Blake is needy for attention. He wants to lead and he wants the attention that being a leader gives him. He also needs it in his personal life. Yes, I’ve seen him retreat to the shadows but that’s because he doesn’t want their attention. You should be glad that Avon can give him that and you won’t have to fill that need alone.” Lethro reached out and covered Del’s hand with his own. “But that’s also his weakness, Avon’s that is. He is relentless so he cannot predict anomalies. He cannot predict the human factor. That always throws him. I think his single-mindedness is what Zethyr likes about him. Unable to form a connection, Avon reaches out to him.

“It may also explain Avon’s outburst, did you notice how he said; ‘The only reason, he got away with murder is because not a single one of you had the ability to stand up to him and give him structure. I only hope I can fix what you destroyed with your supreme idiocy.’?

“I believe that Avon was able to force some connection, enough that Zethyr used him like a focus. Zethyr cannot… really is unable to connect to the world but through Avon he can at least view it and it’s underlying principles. He doesn’t know right from wrong but he knows when Avon thinks ‘bit not good’ or ‘do not do that’ or ‘it’s wrong’.”

Tarrant frowned, “Avon as someone’s conscience!”

“Well yes, Avon knows what’s right and wrong. He understands it and often cares about it. Especially if it can come back and hurt him. Avon obeys laws because he doesn’t want the consequences, not because he’s a good man. He’s a bit amoral when it comes to laws, really. Now you have someone who cannot care about society being allied with someone who can navigate it with ease once he understand the rules. He can’t teach a genetic sociopath to understand it but he can present himself as a meter stick to measure society for Zethyr.

“Good becomes defined as whatever doesn’t piss off Avon and bad as what pisses off Avon. Simple, right?”

“Yeah, and I bet if he doesn’t know what to do, then it’s do what Avon would do or get out. But Avon’s been dead for years to him. How can he raise his daughter and teach her right from wrong if he doesn’t know it himself?”

“He doesn’t." Coll voice came from beside them as he entered the room, " Sorry to interrupt but I wanted to talk to Lethro. However to answer your question, I don’t think he does raise his daughter. Yes, we have teachers who educate the children. No, he doesn’t have a nanny but you make me think of how you were acting. Earlier, when you were acting like this, I heard about what happened on the bridge. I’m thinking back and the person who runs the cell is very different than the person who is raising Terkerra. Part of the listing that you gave me, Lethro, mentioned the ability and desire to take on different names and personas. I don’t think he’s raising his daughter. I think Avon is.

“Listen, when I described him to you; stoic, determined, loyal, relentless, manipulative, calculating, dark… does that sound like Avon or not? I think he’s doing Avon. I think he is being Avon to raise Terkerra.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Make new friends but keep the old for one is silver and the other is gold. Vila makes a new friend. This whole chapter is somewhat Vila-centeric except for 1 scene I think. Most importantly, Vila gets an answer for why Avon tried to murder him.

Five days out from Allimi (no time has passed, they are just that good on the engine tweaking, yes they are!)

 

Aline couldn’t believe what they had done. Even Vila looked triumphant. He was covered in oil and dirt from squeezing into those tight spots. One wouldn’t have believed that he could do that but he did. Claimed it was his natural thief ability. Aline laughed as Vila finished up a story about a heist that he and Avon had pulled, that ended up not being anything like they thought it should have been. Even Avon smiled, a small one but one nonetheless. For all his darkness and acerbic character, he could be charming from time to time and he definitely knew what he was doing. Avon pointed out a table for them and headed towards the food processor, a few seconds later he was back with a tray full of food. As he moved to sit down, he looked at them.

“Do you honestly believe that they will know the difference?”

Vila nodded, “Tarrant will. Especially when gets back on duty and sees the tracking plot.”

Avon nodded, “We just need Lethro to keep him off the bridge for the rest of the voyage then.”

Vila shook his head. “Not really, just for the next few days. And that, my friends, is where I come in. This calls for the long con. So, all I have to do is deliberately avoid Tarrant, especially when Lethro is around. That makes him wonder exactly how well our little talk went.”

“What little talk?”

Vila paled. “I didn’t tell you? Well, apparently he was told to talk to me. Not at me, not bully me, not try to kill me but talk _to_ me. Mainly it was about you and Blake. He’s still obsessed with why you two like me. He wanted to know why you trust me when he himself sees me only as a thug. He wanted to know why I forgave you when you tried to kill me. And the answers I gave him wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

Aline frowned, “Why did you forgive him? My religion tells me that if I don’t forgive then I poison myself but why did you forgive him and if you don’t mind, how exactly did he try to kill you?”

Vila sighed, “It was less six standard months ago. Egrorian, he invented something called a tachyon funnel. It’s a weapon, supposedly one of the most destructive ones in the Federation. Well, the guy, he runs off with just his assistant and then calls Avon to make a deal to get Orac in exchange. Me and Avon go to Malodar to see this weapon, Servalan’s there. She wants it herself. But Egrorian is mad, not angry but insane. Avon gives him a fake Orac which works well because it’s a fake weapon but we didn’t know that. We get the weapon and we’re taking off but something is slowing down the ship. We’re going to crash, we can’t reach escape speed.

“So Avon says we have to lighten the ship, so we go around and we toss out everything not bolted down and some that was. It’s not enough. Orac says we have to dump seventy kilos. I may not look like much but I’m seventy three kilos (160.6 pounds) which Orac, damn his circuits, points out. So I realize at the same moment that he does, what Orac wants him to do, so I do what I do best. I run. He follows, he even calls out ‘Here kitty, kitty’. Which by the way is past insulting and it’ll be a long time before it stops being in my nightmares and I will likely never forgive you for that. That said, he never did find me and soon discovered that the ship was too heavy for it’s class, which means there was something else there. Egrorian had put some dark matter on the ship. Once he dumped that we were safe.”

Aline turned anguished eyes on Avon. “I thought he was your friend.”

“I am.” Vila tapped the table to get her attention. “I am but I forgot something very valuable about Avon. He’s a survivor. I’ve had time to think about it and we all owe Avon an apology. We knew he needed help and he wouldn’t ask for it, which means that we should have offered it. He was trying to be Avon and Blake and he’s not. He’s just Avon. The pressure was driving him to the brink of madness. I figured it was his version of a long con. Either he wanted to drive me away for my own safety before I was pulled into this mess, or he wanted to destroy me because at least this he could do on his own, or he was being exceeding practical. I don’t think Zethyr is the only sociopath around. You from time to time choose to cut all ties and think like a computer. A plus B must equal C and if an X or D or subset Quirzl enters, you ignore it and destroy it. If your reason is anything else but that, don’t let me know. I wanna keep an idea of the fact that you didn’t just decide to kill me on a whim.”

“You were in locker A-29. You were crouched at the bottom of the locker.” Avon replied.

“If you knew where I was, what the hell was all the ‘here, kitty, kitty’ about?

“It kept you in the locker rather than wandering about where an airlock can open up.”

Vila stared at him then turned to Aline. “And that’s why I’m still his friend. He sucks as a friend, and maybe what he said was a lie, but maybe too it wasn’t. And I’m gonna choose to believe it wasn’t.”

Aline nodded, “That’s called love you know. Forgiving them despite the fact that you should want to kill them. And you’re right, he’s got a lot of making up to do for the kitty remark.”

“Yeah, so about Tarrant?” Vila shifted uncomfortably.

Aline let him change the topic and looked from the corner of her eye at Avon. She saw some of the tension release from his shoulders. Apparently the strained friendship would be a long time in returning to normal but it would. Pleased she let Avon and Vila plot to keep Tarrant off the bridge.

 

//||\\\

 

“Come in!” Lethro called out, letting the door open as Aline entered. “Welcome, can I do something for you?”

“Nae, but I can for you. I noticed that you kicked Del off the bridge. The engines are ticking fine and I can keep watch on them from the bridge, so I thought I should offer to take over his shifts.”

“That’s appreciated. Thank you. Are you going to Blake or would you prefer that I did?”

“Either or but maybe he would take it better if it was you?” She suggested.

“Alright, and thank you. Before you go, I wondering if you needed anything? For yourself I mean.”

“To talk? About my family all being dead? No, I don’t think so. I don’t keep it in but I prefer to talk to my God myself.”

“Alright, I just wanted you to know that I am available if you need a warm body and if you want to hit something, we can spar. We actually have a gym on board now, it’s rather wonderful.”

“Think you can take me, boy?”

“Madam, you are a mother and can take more punishment than any man but I’ll do my best.”

Aline laughed and opened the door for him.

 

//||\\\

 

Soolin stopped and looked at the young man huddled against the ‘window’ and wondered why she was being so stupid. Sighing, she walked up to him and placed on hand on his head. She felt him turn to look up at her. He gave her a soft smile then turned back to the ‘window’ and leaned into her touch. It was all he needed.

 

//||\\\

 

Tarrant grit his teeth as he entered Roj’s room. He realized that Roj wasn’t there and turned to leave. Suddenly he stopped and instead headed for Roj’s bedroom. Kicking off his deck shoes, he lay across the bed, hugging Roj’s pillow tight. It still had just a bit of his scent, like water and the smell of xilax. Just a few minutes.

A large hand ran through his hair. An arm was flung around his waist and a solid thumping was below his ear. He breathed in the scent of a warm Roj. It was even a faintly moist warm Roj. Murmuring happily, he tangled his legs with Roj’s and sighed.

“Guess, Lethro told you, didn’t he?”

“Yes. No bridge duty until we hit landfall. That’s another eight days.”

“Not too long. It’s less than a week and half. Until then I guess you can do any other duty but bridge duty. Like perhaps homework?”

“I already talk to Vila, and I’m not approaching Avon for at least another two weeks. Maybe once his husband gets his hand on him, Avon will act like a human being.”

“You two are too much alike. I’m sure of it. However this just means there are other ways for the two of you to relate. For now, why don’t we have you and Coll work together? You do realize that either Avon will leave us to join Zethyr or Zethyr will leave his cell to join us.”

“Yeah, but I don’t see Avon leaving us so much. From the way he cut down Coll in the meeting, he’s going to try to remove Zethyr from the ‘bad influence’ though how bad an influence can one be on a sociopath? Really.”

“Bad enough to make Avon pissed.”

“For that alone, they should be shot.”

“But if we shoot them then we can’t set Avon on them.”

Tarrant grinned evilly, “Brilliant.”

They lay like that for a few moments before Tarrant asked quietly, “Can we keep Coll?”

“No, I think when Zethyr leaves, they’ll need Coll to be their new rock.”

Tarrant nodded, “We can trade them Lethro.”

Roj laughed.

 

//||\\\

 

Lethro collapsed onto the mat. “Okay, who are you and where have you been hiding that?”

Aline laughed. “I don’t compete, never did but my family believes everyone should be able to take care of themselves. No matter the gender. My parents taught me.”

Lethro grinned, “Yeah and they were what?”

“Well Mama Jean was a wrestler and Papa George was a world class archer. But it was really Mama Alis, she was a Marine and she taught us to fight dirty. ‘Who cares if you fight dirty or clean as long as you win?’.”

“Wise woman, with a wise daughter. Shall we go again?”

“Are you recovered enough?”

Lethro stood up. “Don’t go easy. Start!”

 

//||\\\

 

Vila disabled the lock on Avon’s door and entered. He stopped as realized that Avon was in the room, asleep on the couch with the view screen on. Terkerra and Zethyr were displayed twice life sized. She was running around in a set of blue pants with a yellow shirt. Her dark hair had some chestnut sun streaks peeking through the five small braids. Zethyr sat on a blanket spread out on the ground. Another child, this one with dark red brown hair pulled back in a loose ponytail entered the scene, tackling Terkerra. A man moved into the frame and sat down by Zethyr. He had the same color hair as the other girl and a similar face. Obviously, he’s her father. He looked at Zethyr and smiled. Zethyr just watched the two girls. There was no sound but Vila didn’t need sound to know that this guy was trying to start a conversation. As he did so he shifted and moved, inching his hand closer to Zethyr’s. As he moved closer, his body language became more and more clear. Zethyr stood up as if he hadn’t heard a single thing the other man said. Turning around, he stared down at the man, eyes flat and hard. He said nothing but turned back and headed towards the girls, eyes still flat but no longer as hard. His lips turned up as he walked towards them. Apparently it’s something they enjoyed because with an unheard squeals they tackled Zethyr and hugged him tightly. He leaned down and whispered something to them before they took off. He stared after them then turned his back and started counting.

Apparently the count meant something else to the other man because a look of fear and exasperation came over his face before resignation finally won and he stood up. A silent shrug and he moved off screen again. Having failed but he was not defeated. This then must be the man that Zethyr killed. Vila couldn’t help but feel the man had earned his death several times over. Threatening Terkerra is just the final straw. Checking on Avon one more, he turned off the screen and left the note he had originally came to deliver on the table where Avon could see it when he woke. Five more days and Avon could hold his daughter in his hands rather than just see her on a screen. Maybe there was a shortcut they could use? He’d have to ask Aline but he doubted it.

“Soon, I promise ya.” Vila turned and headed out the door. Avon didn’t sleep well all the time they were searching for Blake. He wouldn’t rob him of sleep now.

 

//||\\\

 

Aline paused in her stride as she passed Avon’s door. Surprisingly Vila stepped out. He stopped seeing her and smiled. “Well, looks like you had a busy day. Would you care for a drink, lovely woman?”

Aline smiled, her cheek dimpling, “Vila…”

“Just a drink, between friends.”

“Alright. And I’ll tell you how it went with Lethro.”

Vila held out his arm and she took it, smiling.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a long one. Lots of information. And finally the long awaited meeting of Zethyr and Avon.
> 
> Also, let me make this very very very very very very clear. There will be no sex between Avon and Vila, no matter how close they get. Vila is straight, however Avon is showing Vila how much he esteems and respects him by sharing warmth of any type with him. Sex is easy to get. Warmth is not. Now... unlike Del, who seduced Roj without my permission, Vila is not interested in sex with Avon. Can this change 80+ thousand more words in, maybe but unless I warn for it, it's NOT HAPPENING!!!
> 
> Thank you.

Two days out of Allimi

 

Tarrant ran the circuit of the track, feet falling in a regular pattern, every time his left foot hit the pavement he could feel his heartbeat, then the right foot and another beat. He let himself zone and only concentrated on breathing. A sudden tug threw him off beat and he stumbled. Lethro was leading him over to a bench. Pressing a drink into his hand.

“Are you that bored? Really? You were running when I left and you are running when I come back. Don’t abuse yourself.”

Del drank the drink, some sort of electrolyte solution that was absolutely disgusting. He focused on what Lethro said, shaking his head and trying to speak but only croaking. He drank some more and tried again. “I’m not, it’s just a habit. I get to running and I forget everything else.”

“Then you need a running buddy and no, not me. I hate running. Shall I see if one of the others would like to join you?”

“It’s not necessary.”

“True, you won’t be running anywhere for a while.”

Tarrant saw red and lurched up, almost stumbling as his legs barely held him up. “You are not banning me from the gym.”

“No, I’m not, you just did. You can barely walk. Tomorrow when it sets in, you will be barely able to stand. Now, while you can still move, let’s get you into the hydrotherapy tub so it won’t hurt as much later.”

Tarrant groaned as he leaned against Lethro who helped him hobble to the hydrotherapy tub. Gently, he helped him undress and then Lethro lowered him in and turned on the taps. Another bottle of that disgusting solution appeared next to him.

“Yeah, it’s gross but it’s needed. We need to replace what you sweated out. Just drink it and rest. I’ll go grab you some food. Soup good?”

Tarrant nodded and let his head fall back against the padded headrest.

Lethro shook his head at the young man’s foolishness and headed to get the food. Halfway to the mess hall, he stops as he gets a wonderful idea and detours. Del would love this.

 

//||\\\

 

Tarrant drowsed in the tub, the warm water and jets soothed him. He heard the door open behind him but he felt too good to turn around. A tray was placed on his right side and he heard cloth slithering. A wake of water slapped him and opened heavy eyes. He had no clue what Lethro was doing. He felt on hand cup his cheek and lips press against his. Shocked he opened his eyes and tried to focus on the face way too close to his. The face pulled back and Roj smiled at him.

“Lethro told me that you overdid it. How are you feeling now?”

“Better with you here. I may have overdone it a little.”

“I see, only a little, so I guess you really don’t need this food.” Roj reached over to take a piece of cheese. Tarrant took holding his wrist and brought Roj’s hand to his mouth.

“I think you might have to feed me, Roj.”

Roj eyes lit up with amusement and desire. “But of course, my Del.”

A shiver ran through him at the endearment.

“Ah, you like being my Del.”

Tarrant turned away, and pretended that he didn’t hear Roj moving forward. He felt the press of warm lips on his neck. One finger caressing his ear.

“Is it a blush or the warm water?” Roj’s other hand traveled down his side, tickling his ribs before moving over his hip and cupping his cock. “Do you still wish to be my Del?” he whispered?

Del whimpered before turning around and taking Roj’s lips captive. “You know I will. You are so…”

“Yours.”

 

//||\\\

 

Avon stared at the repeater plot and did a few mental calculations. “Orac, explain the differences between our predicted transit time and the actual transit time.”

Orac’s lights flickered. “We have taken what may be called commonly referred to as a ‘short cut’ by transiting through what is normally considered a ‘dead space’ that under normal drives would be unsafe to traverse.”

“How so?”

“The standard star drive would disturb the fabric of space-time in the area creating what is known as a gravitic shear. Said shear would be at least twelve spacials wide. Any attempt to use a common star drive would result in tearing the _Sovereignty_ apart. It would take no less than one standard month to remove ourselves from the area of the shear under emergency power. However the Plaxton drive does not use the same power as a standard space drive, therefore we can safely traverse the Cullen rift and cut three days off our intended arrival time.”

Avon stared at Orac, “And you saw no reason to let us know this ahead of time?”

“I was not positive we would survive.”

Avon glare ratcheted up. “Orac, understand something. I have lived this long without you and we can certainly live quite a bit longer without you.”

“Order confirmed. Next time I will check with you.”

“Good.”

Avon turned in his seat and sent a message for Vila and Aline to meet him on the bridge.

 

//||\\\

 

Aline’s comm band rang softly but insistently. Groaning, she rolled to the side and barely kept herself from falling on the floor. Gasping herself awake, she moved slowly. Her head was at least 3.87 times larger than normal. Gently, she sat up and looked around the room. This wasn’t… oh? Vila. Drink. One drink had become a few which had turned into many. Vila had let her take the bed. Blinking slowly, and how in the world did sand get in her eyes on a bloody spaceship. Turning her head, she noticed a half full covered pitcher of water and a glass. She remembered Vila telling her to drink before she went to bed and after she woke up. Slowly, she reached out and with a trembling hand poured out a glass. Sighing, she took it all in one large gulp. Then another. Suddenly her head seemed to shrink until it was only double in size. Groaning, she lifted the comm band to retrieve the message.

Unsure of the message, she played it again before sitting down with a thump. Quickly, she located her pants and shoes. Pulling them up quickly, she shoved her feet into the deck shoes and headed out. She noticed that Vila was already up and ignoring the chiming from his comm band.

“Morning, Vila.”

Vila grinned, “Nice sleep?”

“Like a babe in arms. Is there any reason you are ignoring Avon’s message?”

Vila’s face twisted. “Last night brought back some of the bad feelings. I don’t think it’s good for me to see him.”

Aline moved over and hugged him, laying her head on his shoulder. “I understand. Last night brought all the betrayal back.”

“Yeah, he might be the type to forget but it’ll take a while for me. I can’t turn myself on and off like that. Last night, I… I was supposed to see him. I was supposed to talk with him about the book he’s having me read. It’s not bad. But… he forgot I guess, I went in and he was asleep. One of those crystals of his family was playing. It… it hit me then that he feels something for them. He will do anything to get back to them. Anything and if I got in the way, he would be just as likely as he was last time to kill me to get me out of the way. What happens if we get there and his family doesn’t like me? Will he kill me to please them? Don’t tell me that he can’t.”

“Vila, you can’t be thinking forever that anytime he gets upset at you, that he’ll kill you?”

“Yeah, well I can’t help it! I… I thought I was over it but I’m not.”

Aline stroked his head. “Of course you aren’t. It’ll take years for the hurt to heal but you do have to tell him.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Fine then I will.”

Vila stared at her in horror.

“Vila, you told me something Avon said last night and it is why you need to tell him or if you can’t then let me tell him. You once asked Avon if he cared about anyone else but himself and do you remember what you told me what he said to you?”

“He said, ‘I have never understood why it should be necessary to become irrational in order to prove that you care, or, indeed, why it should be necessary to prove it at all.’”

“Yesterday, he told you that he cared. He told you that by telling you that he knew where you were all the time but he was running a double blind bluff to protect you from Orac. That was all the proof he would offer you.”

Vila sighed.

“That’s the kind of man, he is. It’s a character flaw to be true but can you accept that flaw and still remain his friend?”

“I want to. I _like_ him.”

“And I’m sure he likes you too.”

Vila shook himself. “Well, you better reply to him, huh?”

“It’s an engine issue, so I guess I should. But I will come back.” Aline whispered before she kissed him on the head and left the room.

 

//||\\\

 

Aline entered the bridge with a scowl on her face. She approached Avon and stood, arms crossed. “What devil is biting you now?”

Avon looked perplexed at her attitude and pointed to the repeater plot. “We are now passing through the Cullen rift. It will shave three days off our journey.”

Aline’s eyes widened as her face blanked. “How?!”

“Apparently the Plaxton drive can do where standard space drives can’t.”

Aline swore. “Fine, well this is my field, so I’ll handle it. However there is something you need to handle.”

“Oh?”

“Vila is convinced that if you get upset at him, exasperated at him, or tired of him, then you will kill him. If your family doesn’t like him, you will kill him. He is petrified of you and no matter how irrational you may think it is to proving that you love someone or that they are important to you, it’s quite human. Your daughter will demand such proof. Now you husband may not but we all know he’s not any standard to judge other humans by. So what you need to do is go to Vila and prove to him that you will never try to kill him in a fit of pique and perhaps give him a code word or pass phrase you can use if you are ever in such a situation again so that he’s not always looking over his shoulder for your knife. Now get before I toss your skinny bum off this bridge.”

Aline turned back, not looking at the stunned man who let a small smile trace over his face as he turned and left the bridge.

As he walked down the hall to Vila’s room, his mind went back and tried to remember how Vila had been acting of late and what he saw was distressing to say the least. Vila was treating him much like he treated Tarrant. Sighing at the irrational if human need of proof and justification, he let his mind travel over what he could offer. He realized there was only one thing he could offer and while normally, he would call Vila to his quarters to offer or ask it, he could not do that this time.

Quickly tapping in his override code, he let himself into Vila’s rooms. The younger man was sitting at the table drinking his breakfast. Avon walked up quietly and laid his hands on Vila’s shoulder. With a yelp, Vila leaped up and turned around, swinging the bottle.

Avon stepped back.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“I do not normally apologize nor do I think if I did you would accept it. I could promise never to attempt to throw you off a shuttle heading into the upper atmosphere but again, I doubt that you would believe it.” Avon stepped closer before turning and heading towards Vila’s bed. He sat down, a sneer wrinkling his nose. “And where did you sleep, it wasn’t in this bed with Aline.”

Vila frowned as he followed, stopping in the doorway. “Not that it matters, but on the couch.”

Avon nodded, “Good. Come here.”

“I’m not your dog.”

“No, you are my Vila, so come here.”

Vila stared at him. “I’m not yours.”

Avon’s nostrils flared as he waited. Shrugging Vila stepped two steps closer. “What do you want Avon?”

Avon moved suddenly, grabbing Vila by the shoulder. “Do you know why Tarrant resents you? Not because you are my friend. But because you are _mine_. He found in Blake, what he could not find in me. Tarrant wants something all Alphas share. Warmth. I could not share that with him because I don’t trust him. I don’t like him. However,” Avon paused, forcing Vila’s head up. “You, I would share with. If you would have me.”

Vila stared at him shocked, “I’m just a Delta.”

“Out here you are just Vila.”

Vila sat on the bed and sighed, “You are about to reunite with your husband. I don’t think he’d like sharing you. The fact that you offered, that you like me enough to offer. Damn it, why didn’t you offer a year ago?”

“Because a year ago, you wouldn’t have accepted.”

“And now, I can’t.”

“You can if you want to. Zethyr was raised as an Alpha. He would welcome you into our bed for sleep or anything else.”

Vila stared at him. “Avon.”

Avon allowed himself to fall back, dragging Vila back with him, pulling him close. “And Vila?”

“If you ever tell anyone about this, I’ll be forced to come after you.”

“I know.” Vila sighed, relaxing. “Go to sleep.”

 

//||\\\

 

Blake entered the bridge and nodded at Aline. He looked at the console in front of him and then frowned. “Aline, are we on track for arrival?”

“Yes, actually. Avon and I with Orac’s help made some modifications on the Plaxton drive. We made it a small bit faster. But I think Avon wanted to tell everyone. Orac discovered something else and I really think Avon should be here to tell all of you.”

Blake nodded. “Then, I’ll call him then the others.”

Aline shook her head. “I’d rather you didn’t. He and Vila has some things to work out.”

Blake nodded again. “Was wondering when they would. Good for them. So, other than that, everything is going alright?”

“Well…”

 

//||\\\

 

Lethro hit the admittance chime on Coll’s door.

The door slid open and he walked inside. Coll was seated on his table, cross legged. Lethro’s eyebrow arched towards his hairline as he watched Coll coming up from his self-induced trance. His hair which had been cut short was just growing out and it was tightly curled. The white wrap that covered his chest gaped open but was still held closed by a wide red belt, it had two whites stripes that went down its length. Below them he wore loose red pants. As Coll brought himself back, he opened his eyes slowly.

“Hey.”

“Hello. I didn’t know you practiced martial arts.”

“Yeah, I used to have a furiously cruel temper. Always got into fights. I had several antisocial restraining orders. I ended up being sent to a camp. They let us fight, but they taught us to fight properly. I was good at it but with it, they also made us accept a monk’s training. I liked it. Most of us graduated with a respect for order that we didn’t previously have. And if you didn’t, well… that’s our other duty to take care of those who didn’t obey the rules. My order doesn’t like to kill but allows it none the less. Very different from many of the other orders.”

Lethro absorbed that with a slight smile. “Aggressive. However I do appreciate that they do their best to turn your youthful aggression into a more protective vein. Actually, I came because I wanted to thank you. For telling them about Zethyr. It must have been hard but you did it.”

“And now you want to see if I’m falling apart because I faced the truth of him. That’s okay. I don’t need to. But if you just want to talk, we can do that.”

Lethro grinned, “Sure thing.”

 

//||\\\

 

Vila woke up warm which was odd since he always had to raise the temperature in his quarters to be comfortable. Not wanting to wake just yet, he tried to recall a strange dream he had of Avon as a warm black large bunny, one who snuggled him. Very disturbing. What does a dream mean when it’s completely totally and by all means impossible not to mention absurd? Maybe it was because he was still so mixed up about how he felt about Avon. Figuring that he had apparently already been up since he was in his bed rather than out on that really uncomfortable sofa where he was before.

That still didn’t explain why he was so warm and comfortable. The warmth encouraged him to go back to sleep. He flexed his fingers, pushing away from the… well whatever was keeping him so warm. A hand tightened on his and an iron band masquerading as an arm tightened as well on his waist. Stopping, he opened his eyes and tilted his head up slowly. Avon. Avon was in his bed. Avon was in his bed and holding him. Avon was ASLEEP in his bed and holding him. AVON!

He watched as Avon’s face smoothed out and tried to get free… slowly so as to not wake up the Alpha bastard. Wiggling slowly, trying to move inch by inch. Suddenly the arm pulled him closer and Avon opened his eyes just a sliver to stared at Vila.

“What is wrong with you?”

“Me?” Vila squeaked, “Nothing.”

“Then relax.”

“Avon?”

“Yes?”

“You do realize that you’re cuddling me.”

Avon stared at him. “We are sharing.”

Suddenly the memory of that morning came flooding back to him. Vila gasped. He lowered his head back to the warm chest, which was not covered with the usual black leather and silver studs. He remembered Avon wearing that when he had well, laid them down. So that means, Vila’s eyes widened. Avon had to get out of bed and return. Willingly.

“Will you stop trying to think? The stench of brain cells burning is not conducive to sleep.”

Vila chuckled. “I thought you said that showing people you care is irrational.”

“It is, however, you are irrational.”

“To be human is to be irrational for the most part.” Vila pointed out.

“To be Alpha is to exceed being human.” Avon pointed out dryly. “Do you realize that the rate of sociopathy is five times more common among Alphas than all the other classes combined?”

Vila stilled. “No.”

“Part of it is genetic. Servalan is to be considered sociopath but hers is mostly environmental. She was raised to know that she would have to cut across all barriers to rule. However, the genetic adjustment rate among Alphas is more than eight times than normal. There is thought that we are no longer human. Which of course only separates us even more from the common classes. Which only encourages learned sociopath behavior. To top it off. Those who are not usefully sociopathic are destroyed. The numbers of those destroyed is not kept. They’re entire lives; including their birth records are destroyed.”

Vila felt cold despite how warm Avon was.

“Zethyr.”

“Yes, I have some sociopathic traits, they are encouraged among Alphas. However, Zethyr wasn’t considered useful.”

“But you still loved him then, right?”

“I have since I was fifteen.” Avon admitted. “I know he can’t return it the way most humans do or even understand it. However, an ancient writer once said, ‘Love is when someone else’s happiness is essential to your own.’ When he’s with me… he’s content. He’s as peace. He’s no longer fighting his own instinct. That’s as close as to happy as he can be. So is that love?”

Vila thought that through, as Avon breathed slowly. “Yes. It’s love. It’s love, sociopath style. It’s love though. He loves you.”

Avon’s hand ran through Vila’s hair from back to front.

“And you love me too, even if you never say it. I hear it, Avon. Thank you.”

“Go back to sleep.”

“Okay.”

Vila let himself drift off. They were friends, closer than before but still friends. Avon needed him, much like he needs Blake, he needed his thief.

 

//||\\\

 

Dayna stretched and cracked her neck. It had taken her several days but she had managed to fix that last sonic disrupter. Finally each and every weapon was at full working order. Off to the side, her comm band was going off. She retrieved the message and thought it would be a good thing to meet with the others. Grinning, she got up and headed out of her quarters.

As she walked around the curve, she had to stop. Avon was standing in the corridor, his leather all neat a straight like normal, except for his hair. One strand in the back raised up like a flagpole. What was so strange was that he was waiting outside Vila’s rooms and to think that Avon would have walked the halls like that. No, he wouldn’t which means that it had just happened. But… biting her bottom lip, she just pretended she didn’t see it and walked past Avon, with a nod. A flick of her eyes and Vila caught sight of what she had. As she turned the next curve, she could see Vila grinning himself and pointing at Avon’s head.

 

//||\\\

 

Avon strode onto the bridge, his hair once more in place. Vila followed quietly, for once. As he moved to sit in one of the stations in the back, he felt Avon’s hand pushing him towards one of the forward ones. Aline sat at the console closest to the viewscreen. Avon took a place next to her. Vila sat to the side.

“Welcome all. I just wanted to let you know that Avon, Vila, and I have done some tinkering with the engines.”

Tarrant jerked in surprise, “And you thought you should tell us before you activate them and blow us up?”

Blake, who was sitting next to him, grinned. “I doubt it would blow us up, especially since Orac was helping them.”

Orac’s lights tittered in pleasure.

Avon turned to him. “If you are so disappointed with being alive, I can always throw you out the airlock. I can turn it into a family tradition.”

Tarrant straightened up, chin thrust out.

Vila shook his head. “Is this what you plan on teaching your daughter?”

“Daughters.” Coll puts in. “Remember, Zethyr took in Molla.”

Avon nodded. “True.”

Aline looked at him, “And you just accept it?”

Avon looked at her, “Of course I do. He has as much right to add to our family as I do. He chose to take her in, that entitles her to be a member of my family.”

“And you’d have no problem just taking someone and coming home to say, ‘They followed me home, can I keep em’?”

Blake started laughing while Tarrant shook his head in bemusement. Even Vila seemed amused.

“I’m not a puppy.” Vila pointed out, “But yeah. It’s a big choice to add to your family. It’s not something done without thought by Alphas. You may know someone for thirty years and never consider them family but meet someone that you click with and do. It’s partly chemistry and partly psychic I think.”

Blake nodded, “True. Aline, out of everyone here on this ship. Only two people can be considered family to me. Avon and Vila. Avon because he and I fit each other. Vila, because he’s Avon’s and because he’s held more faith in me than myself from time to time. Maybe in a few years, Tarrant but it’s too soon for that. Yet I will kill for any of them and they will kill for me. Dying for them is easy but for family, you will struggle to live even when every last bit of proof says that you should be dead. For family, you will destroy anything, anyone, and never ever stop. That’s family to an Alpha.

“The fact that Zethyr has taken in this girl means that she means enough to him that he will do what’s necessary to take care of her. Avon can’t question how Zethyr well… feels about this. Any more than he could object to Avon’s choice of Vila to share with. That’s Avon’s choice and only Avon’s choice.”

Dayna’s eyes grew wide, “Are you saying that Avon and Vila are… together? What will Zethyr say about that?”

Tarrant shook his head. “It may not be sex, it can be just companionship but it doesn’t matter. Being married is one thing, Sharing Warmth is another. One is usually a contract or in cases of love matches like Avon’s,” Tarrant smirked, “it’s about love, while sharing warmth can be sexual, it can be soul worthy, it can be strictly physical. What is considered to be warmth is up to the participants.

“Consider Avon, do you think it would casual or even just to satisfy a physical need?” Tarrant asked, “He’s an arrogant smug bastard but even he would not stoop so low as to make it what it is not. However the very responsibility that choosing whom to share with, do you think it’s any less than choosing who bring into a family. Vila will become another parent to the two girls. As is proper.” Tarrant gave Vila a quelling look.

Vila squirmed under the look until Avon’s eyes cut to him, with a look that demanded him to act properly. Vila sighed and sat up properly. “Well, yeah, I will be.”

“And if we are now finished discussing my family matters, I think I should tell you that we will be at Allimi in four hours from now.” Avon announced before sitting down next to Aline and asking her a quiet question.

Tarrant looked at them in shock. “Impossible.”

Soolin frowned, “Hate to admit it, but Tarrant’s right. We can’t be close to Allimi yet. We still have six days.”

Orac lit up. “Incorrect. We are three hours fifty seven minutes from achieving orbit around Allimi.”

Vila looked at Avon, a scared look on his face. “I know we goosed the engines, but can’t be that much goosing in the universe.”

Aline chuckled. “No, it’s the Cullen Rift. It’s impossible to pass through on a standard star drive. But… we don’t have a standard star drive. We have a Plaxton drive. It can travel through rifts. We cut half our time off and with the enhancements, which was another day or two off our travel time. We will be orbiting Allimi in less than four hours.”

 

//||\\\

 

Three and a half hours later

 

Vila looked at himself in the mirror and shook his head. It wouldn’t work, he’s a small dumpy looking man and nothing will make him look better. Behind him on the bed, Avon lay, eyes closed.

“He won’t care and the girls will not care either. If anything they might like the idea of dressing you up.”

Vila looked at Avon in the mirror. “Sorry but we aren’t all broody men in black.”

Avon shuddered, “Another me, how dull.”

Vila laughed. “So, when are we going to be in teleport range?”

“Seven minutes.”

Vila tugged on his tunic and with a sigh, squared his shoulders and nodded to the door. “Let’s go meet them.”

Avon looked at him for a moment before standing up and heading over to the door.

 

//||\\\

 

Coll waited for the others in the transport bay. Too bad they hadn’t yet reinstalled the teleport system. But Mycroft had promised them a window of three hours to land. And he didn’t know how the hell he was going to introduce Avon and Vila. But he was supposed to be met by Erich. Who would either find this whole thing hilarious or kill him once they told Zethyr.

Coll looked up as Dayna entered, obviously she had dressed for the occaision and he let her know with a lingering glance.

“Beautiful.” He held out a hand to her and spun her around. “Okay, rule one. The guy we are about to meet. If he touches you, break his balls. He has three girlfriends that I know about. He collects women and you are too fine to be on his arm. But if you want, I know two guys and gal who would love to take you out.”

Dayna laughed. “Maybe.

They chatted as the others gathered. Tarrant headed up to the cockpit. Five minutes later they were in space and headed down to the planet. Coll tried to watch Avon discretely. Avon, who didn’t display any emotion. Coll couldn’t wait to see the two cells meet up. Thinking about it, he sat back and waited for landing.

 

//||\\\

 

The sky was a dark sort of green blue. The wind blew softly bringing the scent of the city. He had never seen the sky that color before. Closing his eyes, he tried to see the color in his mind. Something was happening, something soon. He could sense it. He felt a small hand touch his neck.

“Poppa.”

“You should be asleep, little one.”

“I was checking on you.”

“I check on you, not you on me. It is late and you need your sleep, my love. I’m sure your sister is lonely in bed alone. Not to mention, you will need to get up in a couple hours for school.”

“Are you coming back?” Awkwardly long arms wrapped around his neck, her face tucked into his shoulder.

“Soon. I promise.”

“Alright, but you are okay, right? Poppa?”

“Yes, my love, I am. It’s just… I see colors for the first time in years, I see colors. Something wonderful is coming, my love. Go to bed so that it will come all the faster.

Firm lips pressed against his cheek and then soft footfalls headed back indoors.

“What are you bringing me, Coll?”

 

//||\\\

 

Coll shivered in the cool air as he waited for Erich to get close. Avon turned, gun raised. Vila also had his gun out. Trying to see in the early morning gloom, he stepped forward. “Erich! Let’s go. And the women are deadlier than the men!”

Erich stepped forward, hands help up and out. He had short black hair that was thinning on top, standing only five foot eight, he was dressed in very casual clothes. “Coll, had to make sure it was you. Tell your friends to put up the guns, they are a rarity here. Very noticeable.” Erich’s eyes fell on Dayna and he moved closer. She flashed him her gun and Erich turned to Coll. “Oh, come on. Haven’t you forgiven me yet?”

“Three girlfriends.”

“But I only ever pursued one man.”

“While you were dating three women… nah!” Coll laughed. “I have the most amazing gift for Zethyr, Terkerra, and Molla.”

“Oh?”

Coll waved the others ahead. Linking his arm with Erich’s he headed off to the ground vehicle. “Do you remember when Zethyr told us about his husband? Well it turns out that he’s not exactly dead.”

“WHAT?!”

 

//||\\\

 

Erich’s hands were clenching the wheel of the ground vehicle, knuckles white.

“You are mad.” He hissed, trying not to alert the people in the back of the vehicle.

Coll grinned, “Which one, angry or insane?”

“He’s going to kill you!”

“No, I don’t think he will.”

“He’s a good man, strong, silent, but to know that Avon’s alive and has been but never looked for him?”

“Avon believed him dead. Plus he didn’t look for Avon either.”

“You really just want to break him, don’t you?”

“Impossible.”

“DAMN IT! The man has feelings!”

“Actually, he lacks them or rather lacks the ability to see them in others.” Avon drawled right by Erich’s ear.

Erich grunted as he swerved in reaction. “What the hell are you talking about and sit down!”

Coll touched Erich’s hand. “He’s talking about the fact that our… friend is a Sociopath. Genetic I think but still a sociopath. We see it as strength, stoicism, determination, decisiveness. It’s not. He just doesn’t care if we die. He might miss us but he won’t feel sad. It’s a flaw but it’s him.”

Erich shook his head. “This is unbelievable.”

“I know. Yet, it happened.” Coll turned around to grin at the others before settling back in his seat. “I guess that means it was destined. I’m not going to get in their way. When we get there, I need you to go grab Tera and Molla.”

Erich just stared ahead.

“Please.”

“Fine.”

“It’ll be fine. Trust me, Erich.”

Erich just sped up and stayed silent for the rest of the ride.

 

//||\\\

 

Coll waved at someone as he headed towards the command center. Mycroft had said that Zethyr was in there. Grinning, he popped into the command center.

“Zethyr!”

Zethyr looked up and smiled at him. “Coll. Welcome back.”

“Hey, ready for your surprise. I had to leave them in another room but you are going to love this!”

“Hello Alex and Alis, nice to see you. It’s a pleasure to be home again. How are you? I’m good. And you, Coll? Wonderful.” Alisdar Vanter said, with a wry grin on his face. “You come back after almost a year and it’s ‘Zethyr, Zethyr, Zethyr’. I guess we’ve been relegated to nothing yet again, my love.” He wrapped his arm around his wife.

Coll chuckled. “Sorry. Hello Alexandra. Hello, Alisdar. My mission was not such a success, I’m sorry. An outbreak of Clematis fever claimed her before I got there. I had her body disposed of in the proper fashion and have brought you her ashes. It is a terrible thing I must tell you but it will be tempered with what I found for you. It was lost, but now found and it will make you happy or as close to it as possible.

Zethyr looked at him, eyebrows pursed. “Very well. Lead on.”

Alex and Alis stared at each other and decided to follow. Coll led them to one of the conference room. Erich was waiting outside with Terkerra and Molla.

“Why are the children here?” Zethyr asked, his voice chilling.

“For the surprise. Zethyr, I would never hurt your children. I know the price and I would not do that. I love them as my own sisters. But this is something they should be here for. Trust in me, my friend.”

Zethyr’s nodded and beckoned both girls to him. He stepped in front of them and opened the door. A group of people were clustered in the center. Zethyr could see five of them, but there was two more shapes behind them. Coll stared at them and waved them to move away. Coll waved Zethyr in and waited for him to take a few steps forward. Blake stared at him, evaluating him before stepping aside and motioning for the others to do so as well.

Zethyr grew still. He recognized that form. The dark head turned towards him and suddenly the colors made sense. All the tension disappeared and he ran towards Avon, wrapping his arms around the well loved and missed form. “You brought the colors back. Are you real?”

“Yes.” Avon looked up at the two girls.

Molla turned to her friend. “That can’t be?”

“It is. Daddy?”

Avon nodded and held out his hands.

Terkerra pulled Molla forward as they joined the hug.

Avon held out his other hand to Vila and silently rejoiced in having his whole family back together.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, I WON NANO!!! My 50,000 word according to MSWord my 50K word is 'a'.
> 
> Strangely, this archive says it's less than 48K, the Nano word count says it's over 52K and MSWord says it's 51K and change. ::shrug:: don't ask me to explain it
> 
>  
> 
> This chapter ties things up for this arc and I will be starting the next arc of my 20 word summary.
> 
> Zethyr declared the Federation must die for his husband’s death. Except Avon's not dead. New Plan, Long Live Emperor Avon!
> 
> Well now we know Avon's not dead... now let's see if they still want to do the next step.

Blake looked up as five more people came into the room. It was obvious from the files that they were the rest of Zethyr’s cell. Blake nodded to them and turned back towards his friends. Gently he tugged and pushed them with Vila’s help over to a couch. The two girls settled on eight side of Avon, eyes full of tears. Zethyr sat with his back against the arm of the couch, smiling a tiny smile and staring at Avon. He tugged Vila down until Vila sat between Terkerra and Zethyr.

“It’s okay. It’s him. How, I am not sure but I am reasonably sure that this is my Avon and not a clone.”

Tarrant shuddered at the thought of there being two Avons. Or more.

Avon opened his eyes and turned to face his husband. “When your shuttle blew up, I expected not to find any remains of you. I tried to see if you had indeed boarded the flight and there was a record of you checking in. There was no DNA evidence but to all appearances you did indeed check in. Your seat was reported occupied. And I could not locate you anywhere else. So I concluded that you had been killed by the explosion. At first it was blamed on the Resistance but they had no plans to blow up the shuttle. Later I was captured and accused of stealing one hundred and ninety million credits for the Resistance. I told them that it was a silent contract; I had no idea who requested it. I merely received a commission.” Avon lips twitched in remembrance. To avoid prosecution, put me to work on the teleporter project. Later when I tried to escape, I was betrayed, and they caught me. They then charged me with the theft quietly and attempted to ship me off Cyngus Alpha. While there, I met Vila, Blake, Jenna, and Gan. Blake managed to captured the liberator Jenna and I. We traveled to Cygnus Alpha and collected Vila and Gan.

“And you?”

Zethyr leaned somewhat against Vila. “I was taken off the shuttle by the Federation. I was questioned and threatened. They showed me footage of your being tortured. They showed me footage of you dying, being killed. They showed me you dying slowly. Over and over and over again. They left me in a room built of view screens. Even the ceiling and floor. And each screen showed me one clip over and over again. You dying. You choking on poison gas. I saw you resign yourself to your fate. I saw you refusing to give in. I saw you die and I shall never forget it, Avon. For this, I condemned the Federation and all in it to death.” Zethyr stated quietly. “I do not know how long they kept me in that box but when they took me out, they thought they had gone too far. They thought that they had broken me. Avon?”

“Yes?”

“Is rage a feeling? The idea that they must be destroyed and forgotten, that they should be ground into dust and never more spoken, is that a feeling?”

Vila placed his hand over Zethyr. “Oh yes.”

“Zethyr.”

Zethryr turned to the man who called to him. “Yes?”

“My name is Lethro. I just want you to know something.”

“Oh?”

Lethro moved closer, crouching beside the couch. “I don’t know if you are utterly disturbing, fascinating, or repulsive but one thing I am sure of is that you do feel. I think what you lack is the ability to connect to other’s feelings. Except when Avon is around. Earlier today, you said to Avon, ‘You brought the colors back.’ So I do believe you feel.”

“And you are?”

“I just told you, I’m Lethro. I am the shrink on that ship of insane maniacs that your husband helps to leads.”

Zethyr smiled. “Maniacs?”

“Yes. Your husband who is a just a tad psychopathic, whose best friend happens to be a kleptomaniac drunk. Not to mention, his other best friend is a manipulative slightly sociopathic cruel taskmaster and optimist who is in love or at least serious lust with an overgrown arrogant child. We have a sexually repressed weapons designer, and completely vicious psycho mercenary. Let’s not forget your friend, Coll… who continually lusts after someone he can never have, never wanted him, and rather seek the approval of this person than make a choice based on it’s own merits. Yes, ship of maniacs sounds just right. And for some really weird reason, I have this crazy idea that soon we will add a sociopath who can only feel the trace of others feelings by piggybacking on his husband’s perception and two very young women who will be subjected to this madness.”

Zethyr grinned. “And what about you and the other woman?”

“Aline is actually handling the death of her entire family with grace and in a healthy manner. As for myself, I am definitely about to blow my top. I’m hoping your medical man have some Sudaflexione.”

Zethyr nodded and looked at Brea, one eyebrow rising.

Brea nodded.

“Wonderful, please dial up a dose of 12 cc’s mixed with 10% saline, thank you.”

“Sudeflexione?” Avon queried.

“It wasn’t on the ship, and it wasn’t on Gauda Prime but it will shut my brain down enough so I can sleep properly without me having to be constantly on my guard from your emotions. Remember, I ‘hear’ everything. I choose whether or not to listen.

“And now I’m getting cruel and mean, which means I need some decompression time. Which means I need to get some true rest. Sudaflexione will help me get that rest. So, seriously _Doctor_ Brea can I get the dosage I requested or not?”

Brea stood up and stared at him, walking forward closer. A slight grin on his face. He stopped before Lethro, looking him straight in the eye. “How about I examine you and then determine if I can dose you with that. I don’t want to kill our new Resistance friends. Zethyr might not like it so much if I just let you up and die.”

Lethro grinned, then chuckled, before outright laughing. “Zethyr?”

“Yes?”

“Do you even consider us real?”

“I’m not sure what you mean?”

“Do you consider us to be real people? After all if you believed them to have killed Avon then they have to be somewhat real, right?”

“No, you could be just a construct run by a real person but if you mean when I look at people can I perceive them as having emotions or feeling or in any way being persons that matter or have worth? No. I don’t. How can I compare their emotions to my own, if I have them, if I can’t even determine that I am actually feeling anything? The only time I have ever experienced someone else as having anything internally in the same fashion of myself is Kerr.”

“I see.” Lethro frowned.

Vila turned to Zethyr. “But when you are around Avon, you don’t feel that you need to do anything right? You are content to sit down and let life happen? You know you are safe and that he doesn’t expect you to pretend to feel something you don’t?”

Zethyr frowned and bit his lip. “Yes.”

“Then you love him. Do you often try to make him happy, knowing that if he’s unhappy, you can’t settle down? If he is unhappy then you find a way to make him happy.”

“Yes, of course I do!”

“Why?”

“Because I dislike him not being happy.” Zethyr explained slowly.

“Then THAT’S love. You love him, that’s an emotion. I bet you are the same way with your daughters. You wish them happy. That’s an emotion, it’s called love.”

Lethro shrugged. “True it is. However my point, Brea, is this… on Zethyr’s scale I’m not a blip so he wouldn’t care if you killed me but I would like it if you gave me my meds because I am seriously in need of rest before I scramble some brains. Yours can be included.” Lethro grinned, showing every tooth he could.

Coll stepped forward and pressed his hand against Lethro’s back. “However I would angry and disappointed if he killed you. Not to mention, Avon might possibly like you as someone not completely tedious and would therefore be unhappy if Brea killed you, which would make Zethyr willing to kill Brea. So let him do a five minute checkup and then we’ll get your meds and I’ll show you where you can bunk, alright?”

Lethro growled and headed towards the door. “Fine, let’s go!”

Coll flashed a grin at Brea and followed his friend.

Brea chuckled. “Looks like Erich has some competition. If you don’t mind, I’ll give each of you a checkup later. Zethyr.”

Zethyr nodded. “So it’s your opinion that I love him, is it, Vila?”

“No. It’s my belief. It may be totally irrational but when you saw him, it was like everything in the universe came alive for you. You love him. You just can’t connect the love others feel for you to the love you feel for those you love. As Lethro said, it may be genetic. Whatever we humans have that let us sense other humans, you probably don’t have that. Ever felt it when someone was looking at you? Or following you?”

Zethyr closed his eyes as he tried to remember one instance. "No, never."

Vila sighed, “Ever enter a room and know someone was in there just because you knew, not because someone or something pointed it out to you?”

Zethyr shook his head. “No, I may find a trace of their presence. Have you experienced such a thing?”

“We all have.”

Zethyr looked around the room, as his eyes contacted each person they made a gesture or murmur of agreement. He stared down into his eyes in his daughter’s face.

“Yes, I have. Are you telling me that you didn’t know I was out there with you this morning? Not until you heard me?”

“No, why would I?”

Avon sighed. “It is a parental instinct but perhaps we have found the reason you cannot connect to people. It is an instinct developed by humans to know when they are not alone.”

“Then perhaps it is that, but I can tell you that I have never ‘felt’ the presence of another, except… I knew back then.”

Avon tilted his head. “Yes, you did. You always knew where I was.”

Blake scratched his cheek. “Perhaps Avon has a mental equivalent of an adaptor. He can plug into Zethyr into his abilities.”

Alexandra nodded, “Perhaps. It’s really a frightening idea. To realize that he is always on alert because he can’t really tell when others are around. Zethyr, when you are with Avon, you don’t feel the need to constantly be on guard do you?”

Zethyr shook his head. “Kerr… he…”

Avon placed his hand on his husband’s hand. “Calm down.”

“Kerr lets me be… myself. I don’t have to be strong, he lets me be weak. And I am ever so tired of being strong. I’m tired of being you.”

Avon shifted his daughter until she was sitting on his far knee, pressed against her adoptive sister. He tugged Zethyr closer and let him clamber over Vila to rest against him. “Then be weak.”

“Don’t leave?”

“Never. Let go. You can let me be myself and you can let go.”

A long exhale flowed from Zethyr as he relaxed, tension falling form his shoulder as he let his body go limp. His eyes slipped close and he let shudders run through him.

“Let yourself be weak.” Avon responded and waited for Zethyr to calm down.

Avon looked at Blake who stood up and nodded to the rest of the crew. He crossed over to the others and whispered something into Alisdair’s ear. Blake looked back at the five people on the couch. Vila wasn’t even paying attention to them leaving, he just looked perplexed about what he should do for the unburdening young man. Blake caught his attention and nodded to the group. Vila moved closer and felt Avon’s hand reach out and pluck him closer. Grinning, he pressed up against Zethyr and let his instinct to comfort free reign. Knowing that Vila would help take care of them, Blake pointed to the door and got a nod from Alidsair. They all got up from their various seat and left the room. They left the small family to heal on their own.

 

//||\\\

 

Alisdair led them to a small room, not too far away. Blake and his crew sat on one side of the table while Alisdair and his cell sat on the other side.

“Well, why don’t we get formally introduced? I think we neglected that with all the drama in there.”

Blake nodded, “First, my name is Roj Blake, I have the dubious position as half of the leadership team. The other half is Avon, whom we left to handle his family. The one we left with him is Vila Restal. He is one of Avon’s two best friends. Next to me is Del Tarrant who is a former Space Force officer, excellent pilot, and still learning. Next Dayna Mellanby. She’s is our weapons specialist. She learned quite a bit of weapons design and engineering from her father, Hal Mellanby. Next to her is Soolin, former mercenary and our assault specialist. Next we come to Aline Moynihan, who is from Tara and is our engineer and engine tinkerer.

“I was approached by a man who said that he knew who I was and who I had been. He was a Resistance member; he showed me that I had been adjusted by the Federation. Apparently I was a Resistance member a while back and when they caught me, they adjusted me. I work well as their pet civil engineer until I met that man. Once I met him, I got interested in the Resistance again and they decided they had to discredit me in such a way that no one would dare support me, so they implanted memories of abuse in several young boys and myself then claimed that I had done it. I was sent to Cygnus Alpha. On the way there I met several very interesting people. Among them, Avon and Vila. Avon, Vila and I along with three others started the cell on board of the _Liberator_ , an alien spaceship built by a race called The System. Over time the others died in service to the Resistance and we got others to join us. The _Liberator_ was blown up about two years ago. I was recaptured and they then got a ship from Dorian called _Scorpio_ and helped track me down.

“They found me on Gauda Prime. I was running a long con. Del unfortunately did not know what I was doing and thought that I had betrayed them. He told Avon who then proceeded to shoot me. However, I was in contact with Lethro who was a temporary leader among the Resistance of Gauda Prime. He helped me fake my death. He also help to ‘kill’ the other members of this crew except for Avon, who confronted the Federation forces whom he had believed to have murdered us. The Resistance fighters surrounded the Federation fighters. Once revived, Avon created a program that could help us kidnap the Federation ships in orbit and in return for the program and delivering medicines to an planet plagued by Federation altered disease, we came here.” Blake summed up.

Blake smiled at the other cell on the other side of the table. “If any of my people want to tell you their background then they’ll tell you. So, what about you?”

Alex looked at Alis. He started, “Alex and I were in special forces. Alex in the Space Forces like your Tarrant, and myself in Urban. We fell in love, got married, were happy until I was ordered to attack a ship because it was carrying dangerous and interdicted substances. We blew the lock. It was supposed to be THINGS and the pilot in a sealed cockpit, what came out of the airlock was bodies. Bodies of men, women, and children. They were sucked into space and by the time we were able to seal the breach, they were all dead. The cockpit wasn’t sealed, the pilot was dead as well. Later we captured a Resistance member on the planet surface. He was angry about what we did. And I can't blame him. He worked on the base. In retaliation, he poisoned no less than a thousand soldiers. Some got more poison than others. Several of my fellow Special Forces people died.

“We found out later that he had done it because his family had been on that ship. They were refugees. They were escaping the Federation cruelty. After that, we went on a mission and it went south. Many died. Turned out that they were trying to kill everyone involved in the mission. They tried to kill us again, this time we let them think we dead. My entire squad, what was left of us, decided to let them think we were dead. Thirty six of us. We sought out the Resistance and separated. Decided we could give them the benefit of our training.”

Alex nodded, “Then of course when they, the Resistance, told me that they had Alisdair and he was safe, I went with them. We’ve been here for a good fifteen years now.” Alexandra looked at her husband. “We’ve never regretted it.”

Next to them was a young woman, she had long brown hair, and arched eyebrows. Her long face was graced with a smile. She winked at Blake and nodded to the rest. “My name is Victoria Flyer. I’m our resident bomb expert aka chemical engineer. As for how I got together with these folks, it’s no tragic story. It’s just that my skills really aren’t needed in the Federation, except to work for the Federation and trust me, that’s work I don’t want to do. I never trusted them but I didn’t hate them either. It wasn’t until they approached me with an offer too good to refuse. I agreed to do this one job for them. I didn’t really want to be tied to them but then… I heard about this amazing guy who was working with the Resistance. He… was an expert in chemical explosion. I was desperate to work with him. However the Federation captured him. They wiped his mind and turned him into a civil engineer whose job it was to protect the very buildings that he had once blown up.

“In his memory, I dedicated myself to doing the job they robbed him of. Later, I found out that the Resistance had found him. Then the Federation found him again, then framed him, sent him off to a prison planet. Now, I found out that he has escaped and has been bedeviling the Federation. You are amazing, Roj Blake and I would find it an honor,” she lowered her eyes, “indeed a privilege if you would teach me what you know.”

Blake tried not to wince as Tarrant clutched at his hand. “I’m afraid I can’t help you. I don’t remember most of who I was before now. In fact I’m still amazed that I remember my brother and sister and I’m not even sure they were my brother and sister.”

“That is really too bad. However, if you would like…” she drawled, “I will let you into my _lab_ to experiment. Maybe it can help you remember some of your previous skills.”

“Thank you. I’m sure that both, Tarrant and I will enjoy experimenting. Yet, if you do know a bit about my previous life, I’d like it if you could tell me. There is so much that I am missing.”

Tarrant raised one hand to caress Blake’s neck. “I asked Lethro but he didn’t have access to all the data about us. He said that he would try once he rested. I figured that the Resistance Council would have more information or at least be able to tell us where to look for the information.”

Blake turned to smile at him. “Thank you, Del.”

Victoria’s smile faltered before she firmed it up again. “And seated to my right is Mycroft Sem.”

“Hello. I’m not interested in talking to you. If you need help planning strategy or have any idea of which port is which on a computer, then you can come see me. Otherwise forget it.”

Victoria rolled her eyes and pointed to the right of Mycroft. “This gorgeous woman beside Mycroft is Sula Wesi, she’s our logistics officer. She always makes sure to have everything we need. She is actually the creator of our interplanetary black market in this sector. With her organization and Mycroft computer skills, they have a huge black market going without Federation detections in this sector.”

Sula’s face darkened from caramel to cocoa as she listened to her cell mate talk about her. “Enough, Victoria. I am glad to meet all of you. And even more glad that you have brought Kerr back to Zethyr and Terkerra. If there is anything you need let me know, I’ve already put out a search order for more Sudaflexione for your buddy that Coll’s with.

“My story isn’t really dramatic. My parents were Resistance and myself and three other kids were born into the Resistance. My parents are alive and well, my siblings are too. None of us ever has been captured or tortured. We are ordinary, everyday workers. Oh, my job in logistics also includes human intelligence collection or as many like to refer to them, spies. I do a great set of false documentation. So see me if you want to go wandering on the topside.”

“So that’s basically us. Brea, who is with your friend is a doctor, was even certified but he had a problem with making diseases for the Federation. He can pull apart a disease and find where it was from, who made it, and even how to cure or mitigate it. The person who was asked to kill him and make his body disappear was actually a Resistance operative who gave him to us for safety.” Alex said. “So now what?”

Blake leaned back. “Now it’s up to them. We have no idea what their plans are so how about you show us a place to stay and we’ll stay.”

Alex and Alis looked at Sula who was frowning as she thought. A quick grin flashed over her face. “Got it and it’s not too far from Zethyr’s place. Come on.”

With a nod, Blake’s crew stood up and followed.

 

//||\\\

 

Coll sat Lethro on the spare bed in his room. Brea had injected the solution and told them that Lethro had about twenty minutes before it would hit. Sitting next to him, he held him close.

“Why didn’t you get some of this stuff on Tara?”

“They had switched their entire manufacturing over to research and development. Then switched it again to make Simasten. They didn’t have any resources to make some Sudaflexione for me. And they had used up most of their store on the people who also needed it.” Lethro explained.

Coll shook his head. “You are too nice. But we will find a way to stock the _Sovereignty_ with this stuff. I don’t like that you were suffering and there was nothing we could do for you. Next time speak up. We would have diverted to find you some.”

“I know you would but I didn’t want anyone to. They’ve waited so long. Do you know ever since you told Avon that Zethyr was alive, that his child was alive that he’s been feeling like broken glass is dragging through his soul. He just has the capability to control his emotions to some extant so I could sit with him, monitor him, and still not be bombarded by emotions. Him and Orac. I got my best sleep in his quarters and on the bridge.”

Coll blushed, “So that’s why you were always going to his quarters.”

Lethro laughed, “Of course it was. I have no prurient interest in Avon as all!”

“Good. I don’t like competing against him. He always wins.”

Lethro reached up to stroke Coll’s cheek. “No, not always!”

Suddenly Lethro pushed Coll down to the bed, lips landing on his neck and suckling until Coll shook. Lethro let his hand roam up and down Coll’s back, lips caressing flesh. “I have another ten minutes before this tries to knock me out, want to see how much I can tease you before then?”

Coll laughed. “How about you get up here and we make out until then.”

Lethro tilted his head, “That could be doable.”

Lethro moved up and placed a gentle kiss on Coll’s neck before laying his head beside Coll’s. He wrapped his arms around Coll’s waist as Coll ran his fingers through Lethro’s hair. “I could enjoy this so very much. I could enjoy this for a very long time.”

“So can I.”

 

//||\\\

 

Terkerra’s eyes fell shut slowly, Molla had already given up. Vila sat, one hand playing with the back of Avon’s hair while another was held gently but firmly in Zethyr's.

“I think it’s time to sleep.” Zethyr stood up, dropping Vila’s hand. “Put them on their feet. We can just nudge them in the directions we want them to walk. Kerr, navigate Tera, Vila navigate Molla.”

Vila stood up, stomping his feet to bring the circulation back. “Right. So you lead on.”

Avon set both girls on their feet and tied to keep them from leaning against each other. Vila stepped up and gently put hands on Molla’s shoulders, turning her slowly. He noticed Avon watching intently.

“What you never moved someone who was sleeping?”

Avon stared at him, eyes flat.

“Right. That would mean someone would have to be willing to sleep in front of you without you doing something evil to them.”

“Kerr.” Zethyr said

“Yes?”

“No. Why does he call you Avon, he is your chosen, he should call you ‘Kerr’.”

Vila shook his head. “That’s not how Avon is… maybe back when he was still with you but you have to remember, that he lived so many years without you. It’s no surprise that he’s gotten older and more bitter. He doesn’t trust so easily. He… he hasn’t told you everything. Ask him about Anna, about Tynus, about Blake. Maybe then you can understand. But this is Avon as he is now, not what he was.”

Zethyr nodded. “I see and we will need to talk about them. Tonight. First let’s get the girls to bed. Vila, do you wish to spend the night with us? Otherwise we’ll put the girls into Tera’s bed and you can sleep in Molla’s room. Those girls tend to use only one room most nights.”

“Ah… I….”

“He will spend the night with us.” Avon cautiously placed his hands on his daughter’s shoulders. “So why don’t we get the girls into bed?”

Zethyr nodded and held open the door, once they were through; he led them further into the base. Near the center, he stopped and opened a door leading to their rooms. He holds up his hand to stop them. Taking Vila’s hand, he placed it on the access pad. Couple of buttons pushed and he repeated the actions with Avon’s hand. Finally, he let them in. It was obvious which was Tera’s room. There was a sign on the door. Vila nodded to it and they guided both of the children over to the door. Zethyr opened it and let them in. Gently, settling both girls down, he moved to slip off their shoes. Vila worked the blanket and top sheet down, turning the girls when necessary. Together they got them in bed and the covers pulled up. Zethyr said nothing but took their hands and led them across the main room to another door. It opened and showed them a nice sized bedroom. It was done in shades of tan and deep brown with touches of blue and green. The bed, which was placed on the far wall was large, enough for all three of them. Around were pictures of Tera and often of Molla as well. There was one picture of Avon when he was younger, maybe seventeen. Zethyr brought them around and pushed them towards the bed.

“So, Kerr. Who is Anna?”

Avon flicked his eyes to Vila who moved closer to Zethyr.

“Were you not going to tell me?”

Avon sighed. “I believed you dead. It hurt. For a while I did not seek any companionship until Tynus. He was a friend. There was never a lover but I trusted him to help me with my plan to steal nine hundred million credits. I trusted him to help me on the teleporter project. I trusted him to know that I was lonely. He introduced to a woman, her name was Anna Grant. She wasn’t you. She was sensitive, soft, kind. She had golden brown hair, which is very different from your almost platinum hair. She was someone who could not remind me in any way of you. She had been set on me to make sure that my attempts at stealing money and my incapability to actually work on the teleport system wasn’t motivated by politics. I knew they didn’t trust me but there was never an indication that it was politically motivated. They thought that maybe their treatment of me might encourage me to do join the Resistance or some such foolishness. Tynus put me in contact with the man who was supposed to help us escape. He shot me and took her. I hid out and recovered. She was tortured and killed by the Federation.”

Zethyr reached out and brought Avon’s hand to his lips, placing a small kiss on the palm. “And?”

“She was a spy. She wasn’t dead.”

“Tell me she is dead now, or I will have to kill her.”

Vila put a hand on Zethyr’s thigh, “Too late. Avon already did and it hurt him.”

“It would. Avon was always a bit more sensitive than he let on. So is this Tynus a betrayer as well?”

Vila nodded, “Yeah. We went to him for a TP crystal and he sold us out to Servalan. He died during a fight with Avon. Not exactly Avon’s fault though.”

Avon merely stared at them.

Zethyr nodded. “I agree. Not his fault but I wish he would believe us. From now on, leave the killing to me. It matters not.”

Avon jerked back. “For years, I sought to prevent you from killing and now you just figure it doesn’t matter?”

Zethyr smiled. “For years, you loved me and tried to keep me safe from those who thought I was useless. Now you can’t. Kerr, I had to do what I had to do to save Terkerra. Once I became a father, I didn’t matter anymore. She did. Or as someone once said, I stopped being the picture and became the frame. Even if you had been here, you couldn’t keep me innocent forever, my beloved. Now, it has been a long day and the night is short. Sleep with us and know you can be safe.”

Zethyr slid off the bed and tugged Avon to stand next to him. Slowly, he unbuttoned the leather jacket. Vila grinning, stood behind Avon, reaching around to unbuckle the belt. Together they undressed Avon. Who shivered as Zethyr’s long fingers caressed his chest and arms softly. Vila, still clothed was pressed against this back, with arms around his waist. Vila was warm.

“Relax, husband and get into bed. I have to prepare Vila.” Zethyr stepped back and unhooked Vila’s arm, pulling him closer. “Trust in us, Vila.”

“Yeah, well… my usual type is softer, curvier, and well female.”

“I know, but I’m not going to rape you. This is sharing, and you are safe with us.” Zethyr stared at him until he nodded. Then began undressing him slowly. As he took off a jacket, an overtunic, a tunic, and under tunic, pants, and shorts. “Do you get cold?”

“Not really, I just… need lots of pockets.”

“It must be awful for you then?”

“What?”

“To realize that there is nothing to steal here. Anything you wish is yours for the taking.” Zethyr said, staring up from his crouch, eyes locked on his. Vila tried to step back and stumbled as his legs got caught in his pants, but he still couldn’t look away. He felt Avon’s hands holding him up. “It’s okay. You will understand.

Zethyr picked up the clothes and placed them on a dresser before undressing himself slowly. Avon and Vila watched carefully. Zethyr had more scars than he had many years before. Yet his grace was still undeniable. Once he was naked, he walked over to the bed and climbed on. Pushing his husband to the middle, he let Vila curl up on his Kerr’s left side while he took the right side. Pull the blue wave patterned coverlet up, he covered them, laying his head on Kerr’s chest, he reached out and flicked a switch. The light turned out and he waited for his husband and his husband love’s to fall asleep.


	15. Chapter 15

Vila opened his eyes. He held still as memories came flooding back. They were finally here at Allimi, they had met Zethyr, and Avon had everything he could wish for. He turned and felt Avon’s arm clench around him. What was it with Avon and refusing to let him leave bed? Yesterday, Avon wouldn’t let him go until late afternoon. Today looked like it would be just as bad. Strange to think that Avon needs a teddy bear.

Sighing, he tried again to get loose and felt a hand tighten on his lower arm, nails digging in slightly before releasing. Vila looked down at the hand that until recently had been on him and then back up. Trapped in storm colored eyes, he smiled.

“Good morning, Vila.” Zethyr sat up, gently prying open Avon’s hand which was clenched on his waist. “Kerr always has a hard time letting go. How did you sleep?”

“Like a baby.”

“Good. We still have so much to talk about. Especially you and Kerr but before we get into that, thank you. Thank you for taking such good of him. I got from the conversations last night that this particular development is new to your relationship. No matter that because it is obvious that even if you are entering a new facet that you did take wonderful care of him for all the years you were together. Thank you for making sure that he’s not only alive to come back to us but that he’s happy. And even if he doesn’t say it outright, he is happy.”

Vila blushed, “Yeah, well… This thing with Avon and me. He… it was his way of apologizing for doing something awful to me. He tells me he did it for a good reason but…”

“You care for him but can you trust him?”

Vila frowned and sat up, not realizing that Avon’s hand had fallen away. “I trust him. I trust him to be Avon. After yesterday, I trust him a bit more than usual. He doesn’t ever give anyone a way to hurt him yet he did for me.”

“Yet?”

“He said he terrorized me because it made me safe. I know I’m stupid but what happens next time he can’t tell me what he’s doing?”

Zethyr slid the covers off and crawled over Avon. “He does not believe you to be stupid. He may believe you to be ignorant but he knows you aren’t stupid. It is so easy to rewrite a stupid person’s mind, yet never were they able to stop you from your habitual theft, correct? And you got away with a lot more than they ever caught you with.”

“Yeah. But that’s not smarts!”

“You beat the Federation and escaped so many times, of course you have ‘smarts’. Vila, you do realize that there is not that much difference in intelligence for Alphas, Betas, and Deltas. No, the difference comes in the programming. Deltas are programmed not to think, which obviously you have broken. Especially in the free births. Do you have siblings?”

Vila nodded. “Yeah, eight sisters, born and raised in the crèche. Then my mom had me. She wanted a free birth, so she went to the center and they gave her a donor.”

“Good, then I bet that she made sure you didn’t get the programming your sisters did. As a free birth, your intelligence may be up to Alpha grade. Since as a free-birth, you genes were not planned. You do realize that when you access the Web, you have to use your login and that login determines what information you can access. Ever try to learn how to build a bomb?”

Vila shook his head.

“I looked it up. However, I was raised as an Alpha A-class. There were no restrictions on what I could access. Deltas are encouraged to not think. They are given very limited access and guided to many pages that have wrong or deliberately redacted information. There are almost no free births among the Alpha class. So the spontaneous development of intelligence is not offered the way it may be in Beta or Delta classes. If you are born in a center, your intelligence is reduced by adding chemicals to the placenta to retard your intelligence and curiosity. You never got those chemicals.”

Vila stared at him, jaw dropping. “You mean…”

“I mean, that Kerr… I always thought he would teach our children because he loves teaching. He loves seeing people finally understand something. You mentioned a book he was having you read and discuss. He wouldn’t do that if he didn’t think you could understand it. Meaning, he believes you to be quite intelligent.”

Vila lowered his head. “I can’t even get the name right!”

“Have you tried?”

“Go rin no show.”

“The Book of Five Rings? That’s a very good philosophy book. If he’s having you work on that, then I must agree that he does indeed think you intelligent. Trust me, Vila.”

“Yeah, but…”

“But, he loves you. He’ll not say it any time soon, but he showed you that he does, didn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

“Then believe it. Now, go get a shower. Who knows, after I check the messages, I might join you.”

Vila flushed and fled the bed.

“What the hell did you do to him!?”

Avon opened his eyes and stared at him. “I betrayed him or so he believes.”

“And did you?”

“I…”

“Kerr?”

“I told him why I had done it and he doesn’t know if it’s the truth or a face saving lie and he honestly believes that I would lie without qualm if it was to help myself.”

“And would you?”

“Yes.”

Zethyr let his shoulders fall. “Tell me.”

Avon let the words fall as he told of what had happened above Malodar and his rationalization. Zethyr stared at him, eyes hardening as he talked. When his husband had finally finished, Zethyr leaned closer.

“What you did was despicable, cruel, vicious, and beyond anything that even I would have done. Or were you expecting to die so that you would never need anyone again. You will acknowledge Vila in front of the others. You will treat him as one in his position deserves to be treated. He will be as close as a third father to our children, you will treat him as one elevated to Alpha, and no matter what the risk, you will never ever treat him like he’s disposable again. Is that clear, Kerr?”

Avon nodded. Closing his eyes, he pulled Zethyr down to him. “I will not fail either you or him again.”

“Fine.” Zethyr pushed himself up and rolled off the bed. “And your punishment is to stay here while I bathe with our new love.”

Avon fell back and groaned.

//||\\\

Zethyr approached Vila slowly before reaching out and around him for the soap. Laying his head on Vila’s shoulder, he let Vila lather his arms. Poking him gently, Vila pushed him until he was in front of the younger man. Vila moved to sit on the rim of the tub and applied the soap onto Zethyr’s chest and neck. Zethyr sighed and let Vila take care of him. Sharing was lovely.

//||\\\

Coll felt Lethro stirring. He had already been up for the past couple of hours and catching up on the latest missions that had happened while he was gone. He didn’t really want Coll to wake up alone, so after downloading the information, he had climbed back into bed, sat so his back was against the wall and his friend’s head in his lap. One hand held the tablet while the other scratched his scalp gently. Everything… for right now, everything was perfect. Once they got back to work, life might just plummet but for now… it was wonderful.

A new message popped up on his screen. Quietly, he sent his and Lethro’s acceptance of the meet up time. As his friend, and perhaps they could be more than friends, started to wake, Coll moved his head and slid down to cuddle him.

“Wake up, Let, time for breakfast.”

Lethro groaned and snuggled closer. “No.”

“Yes. I can tell you slept well.”

“Yeah, I did. At the risk of scaring you away with morning breath,” Lethro moved closer and kissed him gently, “good morning.”

“Not scary at all. Get dressed?”

“If we must.”

“Well there might be riots if you go around all the time naked. And then there’s one big problem, I can forsee.”

“Yeah?”

“How to hide all the dead bodies. I guess I can ask Zethyr what to do with them.”

Lethro sat up, eyes wide. “Don’t encourage the sociopath!”

Coll burst out laughing while Lethro shook his head and headed for the bathroom.

//||\\\

Del Tarrant woke quickly. Carefully, he didn’t tense up, so he won’t alert Roj. Breathing slowly, he let his memory go back to the previous night. Flyer’s eyes had dilated when she realized who Roj was. Her eyes darkened and her very aura seemed to change. Roj had made it clear that he was not interested in her but rather had chosen him. He could feel a flush coming up his skin at the idea of Roj being possessive. Yet, while he could give Roj, two of the three… he did deserve the chance to pass on his genes via progeny. Yet, they could do like Avon and Zethyr.

Lips pressed against his neck. “Is that hair or brain cells burning?”

Del turned over. “Neither, I’m just going over the people we met last night. Even though they told us why they joined the resistance, I thought it might be a good idea to flip it over, what might make they loyal to the Federation?”

“Oh?”

“Yes. Lethro said that eventually the goal is to remove the Federation leadership and replace it with people from the Resistance.”

“But not the leaders of the Resistance. What makes us good leaders for the Resistance also makes us horrible leaders for peace time or civil management.”

Del stared at Roj’s dark brown eyes.

Roj nodded. “I know. But could the people trust us if they thought we only wanted to replace one set of bastards with another set? And make no bones about it, we are. To do what we do we have to be. Any leader of the Resistance can not take position within two levels of their position in the Resistance. And Sector Leaders such as myself and Zethyr can’t take any position. We know where all the bodies are.

“I have accepted it. In fact until recently, I accepted that I was never going to see the result of what I was fighting for. I… don’t know this for sure, but if it was me on the council, I would kill or ask Sector Leaders to suicide to allow the new government freedom from the Resistance.”

“Lethro.”

“Yes, after all, he is a trouble shooter. Old guard would be trouble.” Roj leaned forward, forehead touching his lover’s. “That is what I thought. I thought I would go quietly because that would be best for the new government.”

Del’s eyes lightened. “Thought! Not think.”

“Not now. Now I will fight. If you tell me it is time, I will go but not til then.”

Del nodded, moving his fingers to play against the furred chest. “Good. I thought it was too soon for you to feel so attached. We’ve only had a few weeks.”

“I think that’s why Zethyr laughed at me. I am not the quickest on the emotional front. Though if you listen to Letho and Avon, all of us Alphas are seriously messed up.”

Del chuckled. “Maybe so… but you have to admit, as messed up as we are, we do well together. For such loners, we Alphas love to form bonds.”

Roj rolled onto his back. “Bonds or empires? When you think about it, Alphas collect people and form their own little empires. Almost like the Romans, we have extended families, we have alliances through children.”

“Yes, but we aren’t as mad?”

Roj raised one eyebrow.

Del rolled his eyes before moving to get out of bed. “Enough, time to get up and eat. We’ll save our picking apart of our compatriots for tonight.

//||\\\

Vila felt slim arms wrap around him from behind. Long strands of dark brown hair floated against his ribs. “Hey, Tera.”

“Are you and Daddy going to stay?”

Zethyr looked up from where he was brushing Molla’s auburn hair. “Yes, or we’ll go with them when they leave. Our family has been apart for too long. As for Vila, your father has chosen him as his Philia.”

“Papa, what’s a Philia?” Molla asked softly.

“It’s an Alpha thing. It’s from the time before the Federation. A dead language but they believed in three types of love. And Alphas also believe in three loves. Alphas believe in the loves of Warmth, Sex, and Progeny. These are equivalent though not exactly equal to the three loves of the ancients. Those three loves are Philia, which many translate as brother. Agape, which is often translated as spiritual. And Eros which is often translated as Sexual. This is a misunderstanding, because that separates them. They overlap. Think like a Venn Diagram, interlinking circles. Label one with each and watch them overlap. In reality Philia can be described as a love given for the sake of one who is loved. It is wanting what is best for them because you want them to be happy and safe. Not for your sake but for their own. You can feel that for anything that has feelings including animals. When you choose to set an animal free because it is better for their own soul than for yours, you are experiencing philia. It can even be one sided.

“Then comes agape, the so called pure love. I do not see it as so because it is merely love of the moment. It is experienced new every moment. You can feel agape for a good meal which is gone in the next minute. Agape is love without thought, you can feel that for all of humanity because it takes no thought to do so.

“Then there is Eros. This encompasses physical love. Lust, desire, biochemical reactions. This is all Eros. It is a wonder that although there was a god of Eros who could cause physical love but he could not cause true love. His mother could but even with her, it was artificially induced and she could not break apart couples that fate put together.”

Molla sighed as Zethyr explained and brushed her hair. “Then I feel philia for Tera, and maybe agape too?”

“Likely but yes.”

“And Kerr… I mean Avon?”

“Call him ‘Daddy’, it’s okay. But he feels Philia for Vila. There may be a bit of Eros but mainly, his love for Vila is that of someone who without whom, the universe would be a bit darker. Without the colors that make life worth living.”

Vila wrapped his arm around Tera and held her close. “What is wrong with you, Zethyr. You act like this doesn’t phase you! You… you’re too perfect.”

“I am not. I have my bad days but Vila, think of it from my point of view. My husband is _alive_. He is home. Not only that but he brought you! My children have more than just me now, they have Kerr. They have you! They’ve gone from having one adult who not only loves them but will sacrifice everything for them to three. Oh I know my cell would also sacrifice their lives for them. More importantly, my cell would knock them out and drag them far away as fast as they could! But you, Vila, you will be as another father to them. That’s what Kerr choosing you means. It’s what it means that he has added you to this family. So, if I see a bit too accepting think of it this way, you have given me two great gifts and I can not find it in me to be unhappy about them.” Zethyr said as he finished off Molla’s hair. “Congratulations Vila. It’s girls! Two of them.”

Vila nodded. “Well, I always did want children. Daughters will suit me fine.”

“Good because I doubt we could return them. Not to mention it would a hassle to break them out.” Avon replied from the doorway.

Vila turned his head as far as it could go. “Well it’s about time you woke up, you lazy a…”

Avon shook his head and entered. Passing the back of his hand over Vila’s cheek as he passed and pressing a kiss to fingers before pressing those fingers against Tera’s head. He walked over and brushed his lips against Molla’s head before wrapping his arms around his husband. They all stayed still for a moment before Zethyr broke away and headed to the view screen in the room. His fingers tapped a few commands the schedule of the day for him and the girls popped up.

“Alright, breakfast first, then we can take them to class. After that, what fun… meetings! Do you have everything girls?”

“Yes, Papa.”

“Yes, Daddy.”

The two girls ran to the door. Zethyr followed, grinning while Avon guided Vila with gentle touches. The two girls ran on ahead, not so far that they couldn’t see them but far enough to have some distance. As they walked through the hallways several people nodded to and waved to the family group.

As they entered the mess hall, they noticed Blake and the others at a far table. Zethyr led them to pick up their trays and let them collect their food before heading over to where his leadership team and his love’s group were seated.

//||\\\

Sula dropped down next to Victoria who was subtly flirting with the dark woman. Shaking her head, she pulled out a computer and a stack of flat blank bands. “So, since we’re not going to keep you locked up down here, you all need new id’s. I have a couple of templates for most of you but Dayna and Vila will be a problem. Cally, mercs are not unknown here, usually for relaxation so just pick a new name and we’re set.”

Roj frowned, “Why would Vila be a problem, Dayna I understand.”

Dayna frowned. “Why would I be a problem?”

The rest of the group traded glances and smiles. Vila chuckled, “Well, Lethro said it on Tara, didn’t they. You’re too pure. Dayna, there aren’t really any people who are ‘Black’ anymore. It’s not just the skin but your hair is ethnic, so too your features. Everything on you shouts almost pure African Ancestry. Oh, yer too light to be pure, but purer than most. Many have blended into the background. Even Cally is a bit too pure. Sorry but most humans now are mutts.”

Sula nodded. “Even or perhaps especially Alphas. After all, superior breeding means taking what good from whatever genetic ancestry you can get. My name is Indonesian but myself, I am a blend of European, Native American, some Indonesian and Chinese. For you, I would suggest that we make you a Special Class, meaning you are an Alpha strand that was specially bred to pass on certain genes. They are the only one of all the Alpha types that have clones and raised by the Federation themselves, so they are even more detached than most Alphas, if possible. All you need to do is pick a name, a single name. And we’ll work on a background later.

“Just one thing, Dayna. If we make you a special, do not be surprised if men and women come up to you proposing a contract. As a Special, your genes are highly prized, you were supposedly born to pass them on. Just accept their information and tell them you are on vacation but will keep their information for further contact.”

Dayna nodded. “Is this caste stuff, really that important?”

Tarrant frowned. “It’s vital to making sure society functions. Perhaps you don’t understand never having lived in such a society. Yes, there is potential for abuse but every citizen is entitled to a place to live, food, and adequate education.”

Dayna shook her head. “But it seems to me that you deny them basic rights? Besides I thought you disliked how the Federation runs things.”

“We do, however we don’t dislike everything the Federation does. I bet you were appalled when they explained how the different castes are born, adjusted, and raised. Yet, it could be no other way if we wanted a stable society. 

“The lower castes do not have the capability to understand some things because we have made it so, and yet Vila who is of the lower class is much more intelligent than his fellows? Why? Vila… is a free birth, as such, he was never subjected to the chemicals that would have adjusted his ability to learn. Do you think that we could not prevent free births? Do you think that the Federation could not force the caste system on everyone? Of course they could but they don’t. Do you know why?”

“Do I want to know why?” Dayna whispered.

“Because they know that in breeding, there is need for hybrid vigor. A wild strain intermixed with a tame strain to bring in strong blood. Vila could apply to move up because he has the natural intelligence to do so. You would see this as a barbaric system. We see a system where everyone struggles and climbs over each other as barbaric. Yes, we are taught that Betas are there to serve us, they are our administrators and managers but we much appreciate and love them for their service. Deltas are the doers, the risk takers, and the main force behind change therefore we must make sure that we never risk them unduly. They are the bulk of our workforce. Epsilons are the unfortunates, they are very simple in thought but great in heart. They may not be intelligent enough to understand what we ask of them but they can feel and to abuse them is an illness no Alpha can afford.

“All are parts of our society and you as an outsider may be offended but that doesn’t mean you should pass judgment on us.”

Dayna nodded, “But to deliberately retard part of your population?”

“Yes, but it also protects them.”

“From what?”

“From knowing what they do. The very chemicals that retard their mental abilities also shields them from other chemicals they are exposed to. In return they are taken complete and total care of. Never will they go hungry.”

Tarrant nodded. “You saw Gauda Prime, that can’t happen. No child will ever go hungry, cold or uncared for. But all societies have good points and drawbacks.”

Dayna frowned. “So if you get rid of the Federation, what will you replace it with?”

“Who said we were going to replace it? It has a firm flesh, good fruit, with a rotten core. The core needs replacement, nothing more.” Mycroft spoke up. His pale eyes staring at them with a particular gleam. “Whatever we replace it with, in a thousand years will be replaced one more as it goes corrupt. All human systems eventually get corrupt. That is why those in power in the Resistance are banned from holding any post during the Renewed Era. The council believes it’s a secret but those of us who are dedicated know the truth, and those who aren’t dedicated will be removed by those of us who are.” 

Sula shrugged. “It is unfortunate that your father took you from this. But since you are moving towards the core, think of it as camouflage. Your lack of knowledge about the caste system won’t be so obvious if you are thought to be part of the Special’s class. When in doubt, be distant and tell them that you will think it over.

“Now on to the problem of Vila. Most Delta’s on this planet are… restricted. They are not nearly as smart as he is, nor as cheeky. They are very quiet and almost no free birth, those few who are free births are all linked to an Alpha house.”

Cally nodded. “So they are prized here?”

“Immeasurably. For a House to attract a free Delta, free Gamma, or free Beta is a mark of esteem. Zethyr has been posing as a Beta who is contracted to an Alpha, it gives him freedom of movement but if he does something and gets caught, he can always claim it’s because his Alpha asked him to do it.”

Avon nodded, “Then I’ll be his Alpha, Vila will be our bonded Gamma.”

Sula bit her lip, “That’s what I thought. This means we can step up our plans and get off this rock even earlier.”

Tarrant raised his eyebrows, “What is the plan?”

“Well... the Federation is here to get two things. Land and Mining Rights. We are here to make sure they don’t get either. The land is for a new computer facility. We were having Mycroft and his merry band of geniuses trying to find out why they need it here, rather than anywhere else. Unfortunately they can’t crack the encryption.” Alisdar mentioned, waving his fork about.

Alexandra, his wife, laughed as his food fell off. “True. The mining rights seem to be for some mineral that while rare doesn’t seem to have much purpose. It is a mineral called Cexitran-279.”

Avon turned his head to face her. “Cexitran-279?”

“You know it.”

“Indeed and now I know one reason why they want the computer center here.”

Vila sighed. “But if they build it here…”

Avon turned to his husband, “Can you call your group together? We have something to show you.”


End file.
